Top Democratic Leaders Have Paid WPRI Pollster More than $153,000

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

GoLocalProv News Team

Joe Fleming, Democratic Consultant

A political pollster being billed as independent has received tens of thousands in consulting fees from former Speaker Gordon Fox, sitting Speaker Nick Mattiello, House Democratic leaders, and Senate Democratic leaders

With Brown University's polling on hiatus, the only public polling during the election season is a poll commissioned by WPRI-12 with Joe Fleming of Fleming & Associates.

What WPRI-12 and Fleming & Associates fail to disclose is that Fleming has been paid exclusively by Democrats as a consultant and these clients include many of the most powerful Democrats in Rhode Island.

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RI's Incestuous Culture

"I think its indicative of the incestuous "know-a-guy" state that there's such an autonomy of power -- once again, it's one of those things that make you question whether or not there is proper level of neutrality," said Jeff Deckman, former Executive Director of the Rhode Island Republican Party and current leadership consultant.

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Now Polling His Own Clients

Fleming's clients are a who's who of powerful Democrats and include one long-standing client who is the Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor - Dan McKee. The Cumberland Mayor has paid Fleming $12,200 over past few years.

When GoLocal first reported on this conflict issue in 2013, the Dean of the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism raised concerns.

"The principle at stake is that the person as a pollster goes before the public representing as a neutral party presenting information without bias or political alignments,” said Edward Wasserman, Dean of the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. "If the pollster is aligned with a particular party or organization, that’s misleading and it’s deceptive. There is an issue of transparency, an assumption of neutrality.”

Moreover, Fleming's work is not only political, but exclusively for leading Democrats candidates and the most powerful Democratic organizations.

"This [conflict] is indicative of the problems our state has had -- and continues to have. It's incestuous, the money going back and forth. I'm not saying anyone's doing anything inappropriate, but it creates an environment for that to be speculated. Because human beings are human beings, if someone pays you, you have a tendency that you like that someone more, it's human nature -- and it's more of the same of what's wrong with Rhode Island," said Deckman who is now a leadership and ethics consultant.

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Many Pay Fleming more than $10,000

Fleming's top clients include the most powerful Democratic House and Senate leaders. The single biggest Fleming client is RI Senate Leadership PAC, which has paid Fleming $26,000. The Fund for Democratic Priorities (one of Gordon Fox's PACs) has paid Fleming $11,450.

A number of Republican campaign staffers refused to speak of the record for fear of retribution in the polling and the reporting of the polling.

"I'm sure there's other good pollsters that would be used that are not financially tied into one side or the other," added Deckman

Related Slideshow: Flemings Top Democratic Clients

WPRI-TV presents Joe Fleming of Fleming & Associates as an independent pollster, but a GoLocalProv review of campaign finance of top Democratic candidates and leadership funds shows that Fleming is only hired by Democrats and has been paid more than $150,000 in consulting fees.