Scott Rasmussen
Encyclopedia
Scott W. Rasmussen is the founder and president of Rasmussen Reports
. He is an American political analyst, author, speaker, and public opinion pollster. Earlier in his professional life he co-founded the sports network ESPN
, and is currently president of the Methodist Ocean Grove Camp Meeting
Association in Ocean Grove, New Jersey
, where he resides.
, who had worked for radio stations and was a communications director for the New England Whalers
ice hockey team. With the help of his father, Scott taped his first radio commercial at the age of seven. He spent summers with his grandparents at the Jersey Shore and got his first job at age 14 as an umbrella boy. He later served as an announcer for the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association. During that time he was emcee for hockey legend Gordie Howe's 50th birthday celebration in 1978, which Rasmussen cites as a career highlight: "nothing in my professional career will ever equal the thrill...". In 1979, Scott and Bill Rasmussen founded ESPN
, the cable sports network. Their stake in ESPN was bought out by Texaco
in 1984. They went on to found the Enterprise Radio Network
.
in Greencastle, Indiana, graduating in 1986, and later an executive MBA from Wake Forest University
.
In 2003, Scott Rasmussen founded Rasmussen Reports
, which has the largest online audience for public opinion data and a social media presence with tens of thousands Twitter
followers and Facebook
friends. According to his official biography, Rasmussen "has been an independent public opinion pollster since 1994."
The Washington Post referred to Rasmussen as "a driving force in American politics" and "an articulate and frequent guest on Fox News and other outlets, where his nominally nonpartisan data is often cited to support Republican talking points." In the Wall Street Journal, conservative columnist John Fund
called him "America’s insurgent pollster”.
Law professor Susan Estrich
has said, “If you really want to know what people in America think, you can't find a smarter guy to ask than Scott Rasmussen."
Rasmussen is spokesperson for his firm's polling data and is a guest analyst on local and national broadcast news outlets across America and internationally, including the Fox News Channel
, the BBC
CNN
, Bloomberg
, CNBC
and NPR
. In 2010 he made an appearance on Comedy Central
's The Colbert Report. He is also regularly quoted in print and online publications. including USA Today
, The Wall Street Journal and The Los Angeles Times.
According to the firm's website, Rasmussen and his company "takes pride in its accuracy."
His poll prediction for the 2000 Presidential election was off by 4.5%, compared to the average 1.1% margin of error most other national polls gave at the time.
For Election 2004, "Rasmussen...beat most of their human competitors in the battleground states, often by large margins." according to Slate
magazine.
According to Politico
, "Rasmussen’s final poll of the 2008 general election — showing Obama defeating Arizona Sen. John McCain 52 percent to 46 percent — closely mirrored the election’s outcome."
In 2010, Rasmussen Reports was the first to show Republican Scott Brown
had a chance to defeat Martha Coakley
in the Massachusetts Senate race. Just after Brown's upset win, Ben Smith
at Politico reported, "The overwhelming conventional wisdom in both parties until a Rasmussen poll showed the race in single digits in early January was that Martha Coakley was a lock. (It's hard to recall a single poll changing the mood of a race quite that dramatically.)" A study by Boston University and the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism about how the Massachusetts Senate race was covered in the media concluded, "...Rasmussen Report’s poll that showed the overwhelming Republican underdog, Scott Brown, climbing to within single digits (nine points) of Martha Coakley. That poll, perhaps more than anything else, signaled that a possible upset was brewing and galvanized both the media and political worlds." The New York Times Magazine opened a March 14 cover story with a scene highlighting the impact of that poll in an internal White House meeting involving President Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
After the 2010
midterm elections, Scott Rasmussen was citied by political statistician Nate Silver as the least reliable and most biased pollster of the 2010 cycle. Silver noted that Mr. Rasmussen's polls "exhibited a considerable bias toward Republican candidates." Silver explained that, on average, Rasmussen polls missed the actual margins by a considerable 5.8 points and his polls maintained an average bias of 3.8 points towards the Republican candidate. As a result of his erroneous polling, Mr. Rasmussen picked the wrong winner in 4 Senate races of the 2010 cycle; Nevada
, Colorado, Alaska
and Washington
.
Rasmussen’s polls are frequently quoted by media sources, political figures, and has received mentions on entertainment shows such as the Tonight Show As a guest analyst Rasmussen has appeared on a number of news broadcasts, including the Fox News Channel
, the BBC
, CNN
, National Public Radio (NPR), CNBC
and local TV stations, and cited in major print and online outlets.
Rasmussen's polls are notable for their use of automated public opinion polling, involving pre-recorded telephone inquiries. These types of polls have been shown to produce accurate results at low cost, but some have doubted their reliability. In 2004 Slate magazine said they “publicly doubted and privately derided Rasmussen” polls because of the methodology. However, after the election, they concluded that Rasmussen’s polls were the most accurate.
Rasmussen’s reported job approval ratings for President Obama are typically several points lower than Gallup
’s. He says this is because Gallup polls all adults and he polls likely voters.
Tony Snow, White House press secretary for President George W. Bush, attacked Rasmussen’s polling on the War in Iraq. More recently, Democrats have attacked his polling on President Obama’s Job Approval Rating and other topics. Time
has characterized as a "conservative-leaning polling group". A quote from Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia posted on the Rasmussen homepage reads,"Rasmussen produces some of the most accurate and reliable polls in the country today."
Rasmussen has described himself as "an independent pollster" who "[l]ike the company he started, [...] maintains his independence and has never been a campaign pollster or consultant for candidates seeking office." The Center for Public Integrity
lists Scott Rasmussen Inc as having been paid $95,500 by the Republican National Committee
and $45,500 by the George W. Bush presidential campaign
in 2003-04.
At the end of the 2008 Presidential election, there were eight national tracking polls and many other polls conducted on a regular basis. Polling guru Nate Silver reviewed the tracking polls and said that while none were perfect, and Rasmussen was "frequently reputed to have a Republican lean", the "house effect" in their tracking poll was small and "with its large sample size and high pollster rating [it] would probably be the one I'd want with me on a desert island." After the election, Rasmussen's poll was rated as the most accurate, when compared to various other final pre-election polls. By 2010, however, Silver's opinion of the Rasmussen polls had changed.
Republicans often use his polling to make their arguments. “Republicans right now are citing our polls more than Democrats because it’s in their interest to do so,” Scott Rasmussen said in 2009. “I would not consider myself a political conservative — that implies an alignment with Washington politics that I don’t think I have.”
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Democratic pollsters and FOX News contributors Patrick Caddell
and Douglas Schoen
(a coauthor of Rasmussen) remark, "...recent attempts by the Democratic left to muzzle Scott Rasmussen reflect a disturbing trend in our politics: a tendency to try to stifle legitimate feedback about political concerns—particularly if the feedback is negative to the incumbent administration."
In August 2009, Rasmussen Reports announced that it had received a “major growth capital
investment.” New Jersey Business magazine reported that the company grew its staff later that year.
While his writing is mostly known for its analysis and commentary on public opinion, often based on his firm's polling data, Rasmussen's 2010 book In Search of Self-Governance seems written from a personal viewpoint, including quotes like “Americans don’t want to be governed from the left, the right or the center. They want to govern themselves."
Rather than citing polling data, Rasmussen makes a case that America's "historic commitment to self-governance is under assault by a governing clique revolving around Washington, D.C. and Wall Street" and argues that "unfortunately, even after more than 200 years of success, there is an urgent need to defend this most basic of American values."
Later in 2010, Rasmussen wrote in a more typical analytical style as he co-authored a book on the Tea Party movement with pollster Douglas Schoen
, Mad as Hell: How the Tea Party Movement is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System, published by HarperCollins. The bailouts of big banks in 2008-9 by the Bush and Obama administrations triggered the tea party’s rise, said Rasmussen in September 2010. He added that the movement's anger centers on two issues, "They think federal spending, deficits and taxes are too high, and they think no one in Washington is listening to them, and that latter point is really, really important." In the book, Rasmussen and Schoen argue for a three step proposal that they call "the last hope" for politician to regain trust.
Rasmussen and Schoen also collaborated on several op-ed columns, including One Nation Under Revolt, Why Obama Can't Move the Health Care Numbers, The Last Hope for Democrats and Republicans to Regain Trust, and Obama Is Losing Independent Voters. They also noted the decline in the president's approval ratings in Obama's Poll Numbers Are Falling to Earth.
Rasmussen has independently authored several Wall Street Journal columns, including a piece on how Obama won the White House by campaigning like Ronald Reagan and an overview of the healthcare reform debate.
Additionally, his work has appeared in USA Today
, The Washington Post
, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe
, Investor's Business Daily
, The Christian Science Monitor and other major publications.
Scott Rasmussen was a weekly columnist for conservative news web site World Net Daily in 2000/2001. In some of these columns, as well as in a 2001 book titled "A Better Deal! Social Security Choice" and a presentation at the Cato Institute
, Rasmussen advocated privatization of the Social Security
program. Social Security reform had already been the topic of an article that he published in the Wall Street Journal in 1990.
Rasmussen wrote Mikhail Gingrich for The New Democrat, published by the Democratic Leadership Council
, and claimed that "Like Gorbachev before him, Newt is a pseudo-revolutionary." The Democratic Leadership Council is a group of centrist Democrats whose goal is to make the "Democratic party more moderate, rather than more liberal".
Rasmussen is a professional speaker, traveling the country to discuss public opinion on politics, business and lifestyle issues.
and the Wesleyan
tradition. The Camp Meeting founded the town of Ocean Grove, New Jersey
, in 1869 and maintains a Christian seaside resort community. Rasmussen grew up spending summers in Ocean Grove, living with his grandparents, and participating in the Camp Meeting programs.
Under Rasmussen’s leadership, the Camp Meeting has grown, a reversal of long-term trends. Attendance at Camp Meeting events has increased and finances have improved significantly and the group is now developing a ten-year growth plan in anticipation of its 150th anniversary.
In 2007, a controversy arose after Camp Meeting denied requests by local lesbian couples to hold same-sex civil union
ceremonies in a boardwalk pavilion owned by the Association. Scott Rasmussen justified his decision to deny one such request in March 2007 stating that the Association would not permit the use of its facilities for purposes in conflict with United Methodist Church
policy, which he said "recognizes marriage only in terms of a covenant relationship between one man and one woman". Another lesbian couple, whose request was denied in April 2007, filed a complaint under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, on the grounds that Camp Meeting "routinely permitted the public to use its Boardwalk Pavilion for weddings and other events", which was dismissed because Rasmussen had already decided to discontinue this public rental practice two days before the denied request was made.
Rasmussen Reports
Rasmussen Reports is an American media company that publishes and distributes information based on public opinion polling. Founded by pollster Scott Rasmussen in 2003, the company updates daily indexes including the President's job approval rating, and provides public opinion data, analysis, and...
. He is an American political analyst, author, speaker, and public opinion pollster. Earlier in his professional life he co-founded the sports network ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
, and is currently president of the Methodist Ocean Grove Camp Meeting
Camp meeting
The camp meeting is a form of Protestant Christian religious service originating in Britain and once common in some parts of the United States, wherein people would travel from a large area to a particular site to camp out, listen to itinerant preachers, and pray...
Association in Ocean Grove, New Jersey
Ocean Grove, New Jersey
Ocean Grove is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Neptune Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey. It had a population of 3,342 at the 2010 census. It is located on the Atlantic Ocean Jersey Shore, between Asbury Park to the north and Bradley Beach to the south...
, where he resides.
Early Life and career
From an early age, Rasmussen was exposed to the broadcasting business through his father, Bill RasmussenBill Rasmussen
Bill Rasmussen is the co-founder and first president and CEO of ESPN.-Early career:After success in the advertising business, Rasmussen’s career in the media began at WTTT radio in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1962. In 1965, he moved to WWLP-TV, Springfield, where he spent eight years as Sports...
, who had worked for radio stations and was a communications director for the New England Whalers
Hartford Whalers
The Hartford Whalers were a professional ice hockey team based for most of its existence in Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A.. The club played in the World Hockey Association from 1972–79 and in the National Hockey League from 1979–97...
ice hockey team. With the help of his father, Scott taped his first radio commercial at the age of seven. He spent summers with his grandparents at the Jersey Shore and got his first job at age 14 as an umbrella boy. He later served as an announcer for the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association. During that time he was emcee for hockey legend Gordie Howe's 50th birthday celebration in 1978, which Rasmussen cites as a career highlight: "nothing in my professional career will ever equal the thrill...". In 1979, Scott and Bill Rasmussen founded ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
, the cable sports network. Their stake in ESPN was bought out by Texaco
Texaco
Texaco is the name of an American oil retail brand. Its flagship product is its fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owns the Havoline motor oil brand....
in 1984. They went on to found the Enterprise Radio Network
Enterprise Radio Network
Enterprise Radio Network was an all-sports radio network which operated briefly in 1981. It featured sports newscasts twice an hour, and sports talk during the evening and overnight.-Creation and programming:...
.
Education
Rasmussen graduated from Minnechaug High School in 1974 and was goaltender for the high school hockey team. He started college at the University of Connecticut, and took a class with pollster Everett Ladd. Rasmussen went on to earn a bachelor's degree in history at his father's alma mater, DePauw UniversityDePauw University
DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, USA, is a private, national liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,400 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the Great Lakes Colleges Association...
in Greencastle, Indiana, graduating in 1986, and later an executive MBA from Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University is a private, coeducational university in the U.S. state of North Carolina, founded in 1834. The university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina, the state capital. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, is...
.
Polling
Scott Rasmussen is best known for his public opinion polling work. In 1995, he founded a polling company called GrassRoots Research. In 1999, after changing the name to Rasmussen Research, the company was bought by TownPagesNet.com for about $4.5 million in ordinary shares.In 2003, Scott Rasmussen founded Rasmussen Reports
Rasmussen Reports
Rasmussen Reports is an American media company that publishes and distributes information based on public opinion polling. Founded by pollster Scott Rasmussen in 2003, the company updates daily indexes including the President's job approval rating, and provides public opinion data, analysis, and...
, which has the largest online audience for public opinion data and a social media presence with tens of thousands Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
followers and Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
friends. According to his official biography, Rasmussen "has been an independent public opinion pollster since 1994."
The Washington Post referred to Rasmussen as "a driving force in American politics" and "an articulate and frequent guest on Fox News and other outlets, where his nominally nonpartisan data is often cited to support Republican talking points." In the Wall Street Journal, conservative columnist John Fund
John Fund
John H. Fund is an American political journalist and conservative columnist. Currently a senior editor of The American Spectator,...
called him "America’s insurgent pollster”.
Law professor Susan Estrich
Susan Estrich
Susan Estrich is an American lawyer, professor, author, political operative, feminist advocate, and political commentator for Fox News.-Early life:...
has said, “If you really want to know what people in America think, you can't find a smarter guy to ask than Scott Rasmussen."
Rasmussen is spokesperson for his firm's polling data and is a guest analyst on local and national broadcast news outlets across America and internationally, including the Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
, the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, Bloomberg
Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P. is an American privately held financial software, media, and data company. Bloomberg makes up one third of the $16 billion global financial data market with estimated revenue of $6.9 billion. Bloomberg L.P...
, CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
and NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
. In 2010 he made an appearance on Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
's The Colbert Report. He is also regularly quoted in print and online publications. including USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, The Wall Street Journal and The Los Angeles Times.
According to the firm's website, Rasmussen and his company "takes pride in its accuracy."
His poll prediction for the 2000 Presidential election was off by 4.5%, compared to the average 1.1% margin of error most other national polls gave at the time.
For Election 2004, "Rasmussen...beat most of their human competitors in the battleground states, often by large margins." according to Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
magazine.
According to Politico
Politico (newspaper)
The Politico is an American political journalism organization based in Arlington, Virginia, that distributes its content via television, the Internet, newspaper, and radio. Its coverage of Washington, D.C., includes the U.S. Congress, lobbying, media and the Presidency...
, "Rasmussen’s final poll of the 2008 general election — showing Obama defeating Arizona Sen. John McCain 52 percent to 46 percent — closely mirrored the election’s outcome."
In 2010, Rasmussen Reports was the first to show Republican Scott Brown
Scott Brown
Scott Brown is a United States senator.Scott Brown may also refer to:-Sportsmen:*Scott Brown , American college football coach of Kentucky State...
had a chance to defeat Martha Coakley
Martha Coakley
Martha Mary Coakley is the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Prior to serving as Attorney General, she was District Attorney of Middlesex County, Massachusetts from 1999 to 2007....
in the Massachusetts Senate race. Just after Brown's upset win, Ben Smith
Ben Smith (journalist)
Ben Smith is an American political journalist and blogger for the news outlet Politico, which was frequently cited during the 2008 presidential election. He formerly wrote for the Wall Street Journal Europe, the New York Sun, the New York Observer and wrote a political column for the New York Daily...
at Politico reported, "The overwhelming conventional wisdom in both parties until a Rasmussen poll showed the race in single digits in early January was that Martha Coakley was a lock. (It's hard to recall a single poll changing the mood of a race quite that dramatically.)" A study by Boston University and the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism about how the Massachusetts Senate race was covered in the media concluded, "...Rasmussen Report’s poll that showed the overwhelming Republican underdog, Scott Brown, climbing to within single digits (nine points) of Martha Coakley. That poll, perhaps more than anything else, signaled that a possible upset was brewing and galvanized both the media and political worlds." The New York Times Magazine opened a March 14 cover story with a scene highlighting the impact of that poll in an internal White House meeting involving President Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
After the 2010
United States elections, 2010
The 2010 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 2, 2010. During this midterm election year, all 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives and 37 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate were contested in this election along with 38 state and territorial...
midterm elections, Scott Rasmussen was citied by political statistician Nate Silver as the least reliable and most biased pollster of the 2010 cycle. Silver noted that Mr. Rasmussen's polls "exhibited a considerable bias toward Republican candidates." Silver explained that, on average, Rasmussen polls missed the actual margins by a considerable 5.8 points and his polls maintained an average bias of 3.8 points towards the Republican candidate. As a result of his erroneous polling, Mr. Rasmussen picked the wrong winner in 4 Senate races of the 2010 cycle; Nevada
United States Senate election in Nevada, 2010
-Tarkanian:-Angle:-Polling:Includes current candidates who have polled at least 2% in at least one poll.-Results:-Candidates:*Harry Reid , incumbent U.S...
, Colorado, Alaska
United States Senate election in Alaska, 2010
The 2010 United States Senate election in Alaska took place on November 2, 2010, alongside 33 other U.S. Senate elections in other states, as well as elections in all states for Representatives to the U.S. House, and various state and local offices....
and Washington
United States Senate election in Washington, 2010
The 2010 United States Senate election in Washington was held on November 2, 2010 alongside other elections to the United States Senate in other states as well as elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. Incumbent Democrat U.S...
.
Rasmussen Reports
As of 2010, Scott Rasmussen is the President of Rasmussen Reports, LLC (a separate company that he founded in 2003). Rasmussen Reports generates a daily cycle of news reports based on original survey results. The results, posted on www.rasmussenreports.com, track the political world, current events, consumer confidence and business topics. The company is one of only two firms providing daily tracking updates of the president’s job approval ratings and consumer confidence. The company conducts an ongoing series of national tracking polls on a nightly basis and regular state surveys. Rasmussen has said that his firm conducts more public polls than any other firm and makes its money by selling advertising, title sponsorships and subscriptions.Rasmussen’s polls are frequently quoted by media sources, political figures, and has received mentions on entertainment shows such as the Tonight Show As a guest analyst Rasmussen has appeared on a number of news broadcasts, including the Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
, the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, National Public Radio (NPR), CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
and local TV stations, and cited in major print and online outlets.
Rasmussen's polls are notable for their use of automated public opinion polling, involving pre-recorded telephone inquiries. These types of polls have been shown to produce accurate results at low cost, but some have doubted their reliability. In 2004 Slate magazine said they “publicly doubted and privately derided Rasmussen” polls because of the methodology. However, after the election, they concluded that Rasmussen’s polls were the most accurate.
Rasmussen’s reported job approval ratings for President Obama are typically several points lower than Gallup
The Gallup Organization
The Gallup Organization, is primarily a research-based performance-management consulting company. Some of Gallup's key practice areas are - Employee Engagement, Customer Engagement and Well-Being. Gallup has over 40 offices in 27 countries. World headquarters are in Washington, D.C. Operational...
’s. He says this is because Gallup polls all adults and he polls likely voters.
Tony Snow, White House press secretary for President George W. Bush, attacked Rasmussen’s polling on the War in Iraq. More recently, Democrats have attacked his polling on President Obama’s Job Approval Rating and other topics. Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
has characterized as a "conservative-leaning polling group". A quote from Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia posted on the Rasmussen homepage reads,"Rasmussen produces some of the most accurate and reliable polls in the country today."
Rasmussen has described himself as "an independent pollster" who "[l]ike the company he started, [...] maintains his independence and has never been a campaign pollster or consultant for candidates seeking office." The Center for Public Integrity
Center for Public Integrity
The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit organization dedicated to producing original, responsible investigative journalism on issues of public concern. The Center is non-partisan and non-advocacy and committed to transparent and comprehensive reporting both in the United States and around...
lists Scott Rasmussen Inc as having been paid $95,500 by the Republican National Committee
Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee is an American political committee that provides national leadership for the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy. It is...
and $45,500 by the George W. Bush presidential campaign
George W. Bush presidential campaign, 2004
This article is about the presidential campaign of George W. Bush, the former President of the United States and winner of the 2004 Presidential Election. See George W. Bush for a detailed biography and information about his full presidency, and George W. Bush presidential campaign, 2000 for a...
in 2003-04.
At the end of the 2008 Presidential election, there were eight national tracking polls and many other polls conducted on a regular basis. Polling guru Nate Silver reviewed the tracking polls and said that while none were perfect, and Rasmussen was "frequently reputed to have a Republican lean", the "house effect" in their tracking poll was small and "with its large sample size and high pollster rating [it] would probably be the one I'd want with me on a desert island." After the election, Rasmussen's poll was rated as the most accurate, when compared to various other final pre-election polls. By 2010, however, Silver's opinion of the Rasmussen polls had changed.
Republicans often use his polling to make their arguments. “Republicans right now are citing our polls more than Democrats because it’s in their interest to do so,” Scott Rasmussen said in 2009. “I would not consider myself a political conservative — that implies an alignment with Washington politics that I don’t think I have.”
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Democratic pollsters and FOX News contributors Patrick Caddell
Patrick Caddell
Patrick Hayward "Pat" Caddell is an American public opinion pollster and a political film consultant.-Biography:...
and Douglas Schoen
Douglas Schoen
Douglas Schoen is an American political analyst, pollster, author, and commentator. He is a political analyst for Fox News. He partnered with political strategist Mark Penn and Michael Berland in the firm of Penn, Schoen & Berland...
(a coauthor of Rasmussen) remark, "...recent attempts by the Democratic left to muzzle Scott Rasmussen reflect a disturbing trend in our politics: a tendency to try to stifle legitimate feedback about political concerns—particularly if the feedback is negative to the incumbent administration."
In August 2009, Rasmussen Reports announced that it had received a “major growth capital
Growth capital
Growth capital is a type of private equity investment, most often a minority investment, in relatively mature companies that are looking for capital to expand or restructure operations, enter new markets or finance a significant acquisition without a change of control of the business.Companies...
investment.” New Jersey Business magazine reported that the company grew its staff later that year.
Political writings
Scott Rasmussen has written books and numerous political commentaries.While his writing is mostly known for its analysis and commentary on public opinion, often based on his firm's polling data, Rasmussen's 2010 book In Search of Self-Governance seems written from a personal viewpoint, including quotes like “Americans don’t want to be governed from the left, the right or the center. They want to govern themselves."
Rather than citing polling data, Rasmussen makes a case that America's "historic commitment to self-governance is under assault by a governing clique revolving around Washington, D.C. and Wall Street" and argues that "unfortunately, even after more than 200 years of success, there is an urgent need to defend this most basic of American values."
Later in 2010, Rasmussen wrote in a more typical analytical style as he co-authored a book on the Tea Party movement with pollster Douglas Schoen
Douglas Schoen
Douglas Schoen is an American political analyst, pollster, author, and commentator. He is a political analyst for Fox News. He partnered with political strategist Mark Penn and Michael Berland in the firm of Penn, Schoen & Berland...
, Mad as Hell: How the Tea Party Movement is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System, published by HarperCollins. The bailouts of big banks in 2008-9 by the Bush and Obama administrations triggered the tea party’s rise, said Rasmussen in September 2010. He added that the movement's anger centers on two issues, "They think federal spending, deficits and taxes are too high, and they think no one in Washington is listening to them, and that latter point is really, really important." In the book, Rasmussen and Schoen argue for a three step proposal that they call "the last hope" for politician to regain trust.
Rasmussen and Schoen also collaborated on several op-ed columns, including One Nation Under Revolt, Why Obama Can't Move the Health Care Numbers, The Last Hope for Democrats and Republicans to Regain Trust, and Obama Is Losing Independent Voters. They also noted the decline in the president's approval ratings in Obama's Poll Numbers Are Falling to Earth.
Rasmussen has independently authored several Wall Street Journal columns, including a piece on how Obama won the White House by campaigning like Ronald Reagan and an overview of the healthcare reform debate.
Additionally, his work has appeared in USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
, Investor's Business Daily
Investor's Business Daily
Investor's Business Daily is a national newspaper in the United States, published Monday through Friday, that covers international business, finance, and the global economy...
, The Christian Science Monitor and other major publications.
Scott Rasmussen was a weekly columnist for conservative news web site World Net Daily in 2000/2001. In some of these columns, as well as in a 2001 book titled "A Better Deal! Social Security Choice" and a presentation at the Cato Institute
Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane, who remains president and CEO, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the conglomerate Koch Industries, Inc., the largest privately held...
, Rasmussen advocated privatization of the Social Security
Social Security (United States)
In the United States, Social Security refers to the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program.The original Social Security Act and the current version of the Act, as amended encompass several social welfare and social insurance programs...
program. Social Security reform had already been the topic of an article that he published in the Wall Street Journal in 1990.
Rasmussen wrote Mikhail Gingrich for The New Democrat, published by the Democratic Leadership Council
Democratic Leadership Council
The Democratic Leadership Council was a non-profit 501 corporation that, upon its formation, argued the United States Democratic Party should shift away from the leftward turn it took in the late 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s...
, and claimed that "Like Gorbachev before him, Newt is a pseudo-revolutionary." The Democratic Leadership Council is a group of centrist Democrats whose goal is to make the "Democratic party more moderate, rather than more liberal".
Rasmussen is a professional speaker, traveling the country to discuss public opinion on politics, business and lifestyle issues.
Religious activities
Rasmussen is president of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, a not-for-profit religious corporation with historic ties to the United Methodist ChurchUnited Methodist Church
The United Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination which is both mainline Protestant and evangelical. Founded in 1968 by the union of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley...
and the Wesleyan
Wesleyanism
Wesleyanism or Wesleyan theology refers, respectively, to either the eponymous movement of Protestant Christians who have historically sought to follow the methods or theology of the eighteenth-century evangelical reformers, John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley, or to the likewise eponymous...
tradition. The Camp Meeting founded the town of Ocean Grove, New Jersey
Ocean Grove, New Jersey
Ocean Grove is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Neptune Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey. It had a population of 3,342 at the 2010 census. It is located on the Atlantic Ocean Jersey Shore, between Asbury Park to the north and Bradley Beach to the south...
, in 1869 and maintains a Christian seaside resort community. Rasmussen grew up spending summers in Ocean Grove, living with his grandparents, and participating in the Camp Meeting programs.
Under Rasmussen’s leadership, the Camp Meeting has grown, a reversal of long-term trends. Attendance at Camp Meeting events has increased and finances have improved significantly and the group is now developing a ten-year growth plan in anticipation of its 150th anniversary.
In 2007, a controversy arose after Camp Meeting denied requests by local lesbian couples to hold same-sex civil union
Civil union
A civil union, also referred to as a civil partnership, is a legally recognized form of partnership similar to marriage. Beginning with Denmark in 1989, civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in many developed countries in order to provide same-sex couples rights,...
ceremonies in a boardwalk pavilion owned by the Association. Scott Rasmussen justified his decision to deny one such request in March 2007 stating that the Association would not permit the use of its facilities for purposes in conflict with United Methodist Church
United Methodist Church
The United Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination which is both mainline Protestant and evangelical. Founded in 1968 by the union of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley...
policy, which he said "recognizes marriage only in terms of a covenant relationship between one man and one woman". Another lesbian couple, whose request was denied in April 2007, filed a complaint under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, on the grounds that Camp Meeting "routinely permitted the public to use its Boardwalk Pavilion for weddings and other events", which was dismissed because Rasmussen had already decided to discontinue this public rental practice two days before the denied request was made.