Worcester Telegram | By Maurice Cunningham | June 24, 2015

In a June 12 As I See It: Give Baker tools to fix the T, Rick Green, chairman of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, boasts that a MFA poll shows eighty percent support for Gov. Baker’s MBTA plan.

One problem: the poll is a fraud.

I’ve read a lot of polls and here’s what I can tell you about this one. The MFA poll asked only one biased question, was conducted by an unreliable method, and its methodology has never been fully disclosed contrary to industry ethical standards. The poll was apparently conducted by a technique called Interactive Voice Response, a method flagged as suspect by the respected fivethirtyeight.com. Mass Fiscal has not even named the pollster.

We also don’t know who funds Mass Fiscal, a 501(c)(4) organization involved in political advocacy.

We have here a misleading poll from a political advocacy organization with secret funders which won’t divulge the pollster or its methodology.

Maybe I’m wrong. I’ll reconsider if the MFA will offer “full and complete disclosure to the public” as required by the American Association for Public Opinion Research for ethical polling. Specifically:

1. Identify the pollster
2. Who funded it – not the MFA, but the “original funding source.” In other words, who funds MFA?

MFA should release its data set and a full accounting of the pollster’s methodology.

Mr. Green says MFA is dedicated to “increased legislative accountability.” Transparency is a good standard for MFA too. Release the information.

Maurice Cunningham
Dept. of Political Science
UMass Boston