Mason-Dixon polls are skewed (sp?) in favor of the D's- very urban, heavy SE Fl, heavy minority. I once heard a Republican had to be ahead (in reality) by 20 points to break even on Mason-Dixon.
They always trot them out to bolster the liberal causes. Watch for a Tennant Group poll- or even Zogby- and forget M-D.
23 posted on 9/25/02 9:23 PM Eastern by Goldwater Girl
I just reviewed the two dozen or so polls put out by Mason-Dixon for this election cycle, and compared them to polls put out by other organizations for the same races. I don't detect anything in the way of bias, and if any does exist, it would seem to be pro-GOP. They were the first poll to show Ehrlich with a lead in Maryland; they showed Hodges with only a 2 point lead in SC early on; they show the Illinois gubernatorial race to be closer than anyone else; they show the TN gubernatorial race to be closer than anyone else, and they show Lamar Alexander with a 19-point lead, bigger than just about everyone else. Everything else was pretty much consistent with other polling organizations.
Watch for a Tennant Group poll- or even Zogby- and forget M-D.
I have now idea who Tennant Group is. They haven't done any polling for this cycle that I'm aware of. Perhaps you mean the Tarrance Group? If so, they can't be trusted. They are a pro-GOP partisan polling firm.
Basically, I don't trust any single poll. The best way to get a good read on a race is to review all the polling data, so you can discern trends and pick out the outliers.