Paleologos has been busy since the beginning of the year, first with New Hampshire Primary, then the Florida Primary, and now the Senate race between the Brown-Warren race and beyond.

In the ten days leading up to the New Hampshire primary, Paleologos was featured daily on the 7 news with the results of Suffolk’s polling, and it was often cited in many other media, including national cable networks.  In order to report the results of the poll each day, Paleologos and a team of former and current students had to work “non-stop.”

The team included senior Jeff Fish, Kalin Jordan, class of 2009, graduate students Natallia Hetmanchuk and Haley Pero, and Consultant to the Director Kris Callahan, class of 2011.   

While Callahan was responsible for handling Paleologos’ schedule, the rest of the team manned the Suffolk booth at the Radisson hotel in Manchester, the epicenter of the primary’s political action. They also fielded questions from passersby who were curious about the setup.

There was a routine to reporting live each day, every evening the poll would be administered and when collected, it would be analyzed late at night in order to be ready for the 6:45 a.m. news each morning. 

Each day at noon, Paleologos would go on air live and speak about the poll, focusing on what changed day to day.  Paleologos, Callahan, and Jordan all commented on meeting Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, as one of the highlights of the trip.

Callahan, Jordan, Fish, and Hetmanchuk met Matthews at breakfast one morning and had an extensive conversation with him, according to Callahan. From that meeting, Callahan arranged an interview between Matthews and Paleologos, who appeared on the show later that week.

Another highlight of the primary was the international attention the poll received.  According to Callahan, countries including the U.K., China, Mexico, and Germany were interested in interviewing Paleologos.  “[The press] goes through Suffolk first… it’s very rewarding,” said Callahan, who began working for Paleologos in New Hampshire and continues to work for the Political Research Center.

The poll brings publicity to Suffolk, and people start to think of the “polling center and not just a law school,” said Jordan, who has been involved with the Suffolk poll since her class taught by Paleologos in 2008.

The methods used by Paleologos and his team rely on the rules of each state. Paleologos designs the poll questions and outsources them to an off-site phone bank that makes calls from a voter list in closed primaries and by random digit dialing in open ones. The method depends on who the state allows to vote for each election, but for the final election in November, the method will be to call members of any party from any of the states.

The Suffolk Poll was represented at the Florida primary by Paleologos, but without his team, which he said made the experience quite different.  Fortunately, the connections he had with other representatives in Florida helped him to get interviews with both national and international publicists, which resulted in even more exposure for Suffolk.  Paleologos said his experiences in Florida were a, “great and unexpected hit…January is a fabulous month for Suffolk.”

What draws so much attention to the Suffolk Poll is its accuracy rate.  When polling a group of 2500 people, the poll has just a margin of error of 2 percent, according to Paleologos. 

The Suffolk Poll began about 10 years ago, but earned its reputation in 2008 when it was the only poll to predict that Hillary Clinton would beat Barack Obama in the New Hampshire primary.  The poll was also the first to predict Scott Brown’s win over Martha Coakley in 2010.  Since then Suffolk has been “up there with the big polls,” said of Callahan, “We were the ones who got it right.”

Because of its accuracy rate and influence, multiple laws have been implemented in Massachusetts because of poll results.  Laws to use civilian flaggers, bullying laws, and laws to block the benefits of illegal immigrants have been instrumented after being a part of Suffolk Poll questions.

Paleologos has ideas for the future of the Suffolk Poll, but nothing new will be certain until after the election in November.  Plans will include more focus groups and possibly collaboration with the Law School. 

If possible, Paleologos would also like to include polls concerning education and health care.  One of his dreams for the poll is to create an appeal for Suffolk’s international students, and include polling on elections in other countries. 

Because Paleologos has a team to help him with media requests and interviews, he plans on attending more conventions this year, possibly in Tampa and Charlotte.  He says that Suffolk’s presence is needed at such events because it is the only university with a, “booth, banner, and students who can actually talk about the poll.”

This week Suffolk will be polling on the Brown and Warren race until Wednesday.  The results of the poll will be released Thursday night and interviews and TV appearances are scheduled to take place on Friday.