Penn, Schoen & Berland

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Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates or PSB is a political polling and market research firm based in Washington, D.C. founded in 1975. Its parent company Burston-Marseller was purchased by the British-based WPP Group in 2001[1][2]; WPP owns several other key K Street lobbying firms. The founder and president is Mark Penn, who is considered a top Democratic Party pollster and is chief strategist for the Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential campaign.[3]

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[edit] Overview

PSB assists businesses and non-commercial entities with services ranging from consumer research to publicity and crisis management. PSB works with political campaigns to develop strategies and determine voter perceptions.

According to Washington Business Forward, PSB's "reputation is largely as a Democratic political polling firm, closely associated with both President Bill Clinton's administration as well as the Senate campaign of his wife Hillary. But the firm also worked for Republican Michael Bloomberg in his mayoral bid in New York City, generating huge fees from the multi-millionaire self-financed candidate that caught some press attention during the campaign. ... Major corporate clients over the years have included AT&T, Coca-Cola, American Express, BP, Novartis and Microsoft."[4][5]

PSB's Mark Penn and Peter Brodnitz have registered as working for the Central American Bank for Economic Integration through contract with Holland & Knight, LLP.[6]

[edit] Controversy

[edit] 2000 Serbian elections

Interestingly, PSB was involved in similar charges of "American political interference in Serbia, locus of a $77 million U.S. effort to do with ballots what NATO bombs could not--get rid of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević. In the run-up to national elections on 24 September, U.S. aid officials and contractors are working to strengthen Serbia's famously fractured democratic opposition. They have helped train its organizers, equipped their offices with computers and fax machines and provided opposition parties with sophisticated voter surveys compiled by the same New York firm that conducts polls for President Clinton" -- PSB.[7]

Jonathan Mowat has a more incisive appraisal of PSB as follows:

Penn, Schoen and Berland (PSB) has played a pioneering role in the use of polling operations, especially "exit polls," in facilitating coups. Its primary mission is to shape the perception that the group installed into power in a targeted country has broad popular support. The group began work in Serbia during the period that its principle, Mark Penn, was President Clinton's top political advisor.[8]

[edit] 2004 Venezuelan recall referendum

Further information: Venezuelan recall referendum of 2004

PSB received negative attention for polling it did during the Venezuelan recall referendum of 2004 of President Hugo Chávez. The referendum results were controversial. A Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates (PSB) exit poll predicted that Chávez would lose by 20%, but the election results showed him to have won by 20%. Schoen commented, "I think it was a massive fraud". [9] US News and World Report offered an analysis of the polls, indicating "very good reason to believe that the (Penn Schoen) exit poll had the result right, and that Chávez's election officials — and Carter and the American media — got it wrong". [10] Associated Press reported that PSB used Súmate volunteers for fieldwork, and its results contradicted five other opposition exit polls. Publication or broadcast of exit polls was banned by electoral authorities, but Associated Press says that results of the PSB poll went out to media outlets and opposition offices several hours before polls closed. [11] The Schoen exit poll is one of the basis of the claims of electoral fraud.

[edit] 2005 British general election

In late January 2005, The Daily Telegraph revealed that British Prime Minister Tony Blair had recruited the services of PSB's Mark Penn in the run-up to the general election in the UK. [12].

[edit] 2006 Italian elections

On January 2006, during the 2006 Italian elections, a survey was commissioned to PSB by House of Freedoms' leader Silvio Berlusconi, who claimed the Italian surveys to be fixed in favour of the centre-left opposition. The survey, then announced on late February, is as of today the only one which showed Berlusconi ahead of opposition leader Romano Prodi, whereas all other Italian surveys have shown at least a 4% lead in favour of the centre-left.

[edit] External links

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