Justin Snyder on St. Pete Polls and Peter Schorsch

Justin Snyder wrote a piece on the connection between St. Pete Polls and political consultant/blogger Peter Schorsch. Snyder questions if St. Pete Polls is truly unbiased.

Republican Congressman Bill Young on October 18th of last year. Yesterday, St Pete Polls released a poll that the folks over at Daily Kos Elections had a field day with. It’s comically skewed towards Republicans (naturally) and prominent blogger Peter Schorsch (whom by the way has written scripts for St Pete Polls in the past, and currently has his own fights in the ethics department as reported in the Tampa Bay Times), covered the release of the poll with a soft piece that (naturally) DID NOT mention the gleaming disparity in the sample: the number of Republicans and Democrats that were actually polled.

The Voter Registration numbers in Florida’s 13th Congressional District per the Florida Division of Elections, tell us that the district is in fact 37 percent Republican, 35 percent Democratic, and 24 percent independent. However, St Pete Polls’ OWN WEBSITE tells us that the poll was conducted with a 47-35 bias in favor of Republicans. Yeah, let that sink in. I’m calling shenanigans.

Daily Kos notes that St. Pete Polls was off the mark on the last congressional elections. St. Pete Polls predicted victories for Allen West and David Rivera.

FL-02: St. Pete: Southerland (R) 47-47; actual: Southerland (R) 53-47; error: +6 D

FL-09: St. Pete: Grayson (D) 45-40; actual: Grayson (D) 63-37; error: +21 R

FL-10: St. Pete: Webster (R) 50-42; actual: Webster (R) 52-48; error: +4 R

FL-13: St. Pete: Young (R) 54-37; actual: Young (R) 58-42; error: +1 R

FL-16: St. Pete: Buchanan (R) 55-38; actual: Buchanan (R) 54-46; error: +9 R

FL-18: St. Pete: West (R) 51-42; actual: Murphy (D) 50.3-49.7; error: +9.6 R

FL-22: St. Pete: Frankel (D) 48-45; actual: Frankel (D) 55-45; error: +7 R

FL-26: St. Pete: Rivera (R) 46-43; actual: Garcia (D) 54-43; error: +14 R

Schorsch has used St. Pete Polls to write a very flattering piece about how David Jolly is ahead of Democratic opponent Alex Sink. Jolly also happens to be currently running an ad on St. Petersblog. Schorsch's former client Frank Farkas accused Schorsch of offering positive coverage in exchange for blog ad revenue.

Around October 2012, then-state House candidate Farkas said Schorsch called him. The blogger told him he would carefully screen what content related to Farkas appeared on his site if the politician signed an ad contract. "We didn't sign and I got what I expected: one-sided, slanted," Farkas said. "He stabs so many people in the back, and he continues to get away with it."

Conservative blogger Javier Manjarres noted that Schorsch wrote extremely positive posts about Southern Group Strategy after they bought an ad on a website owned by Schorsch. Southern Strategy Group has been accused of manipulating their earnings to increase their stock price. Schorsch has written about the Christmas card Southern Strategy Group sent out but made no mention of the controversy surrounding the lobbying firm.

Take St. Pete Polls and what Schorsch writes about his clients with skepticism.