A Pollster Under Oath

October 02, 2012

A Pollster Under Oath

Josh Gerstein digs up testimony of pollster Harrison Hickman who worked for the John Edwards presidential campaign in 2008 and was forced to testify under oath in the federal criminal case against Edwards over alleged campaign finance violations earlier this year.

"Under oath, Hickman admitted that in the final weeks of Edwards's 2008 bid, Hickman cherry-picked public polls to make the candidate seem viable, promoted surveys that Hickman considered unreliable, and sent e-mails to campaign aides, Edwards supporters and reporters which argued that the former senator was still in the hunt -- even though Hickman had already told Edwards privately that he had no real chance of winning the Democratic nomination."

Hickman also testified "that when circulating the polls, he didn't much care if they were accurate."

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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October 02, 2012