Time magazine has described Rasmussen Reports as a "conservative-leaning polling group."
[80] The
Washington Post called Rasmussen a "polarizing pollster."
[81] John Zogby said that Scott Rasmussen has a "conservative constituency."
[82] The
Center for Public Integrity listed "Scott Rasmussen Inc" as a
paid consultant for the 2004
George W. Bush campaign.
[83] The Washington Post reported that
the 2004 Bush re-election campaign had used a feature on the Rasmussen Reports website that allowed customers to program their own polls, and that Rasmussen asserted that he had not written any of the questions nor assisted Republicans.
[84]
Rasmussen has received criticism over the wording in its polls.
[85][86] Asking a polling question with different wording can affect the results of the poll;
[87] the commentators in question allege that the questions Rasmussen ask in polls are skewed in order to favor a specific response. For instance, when Rasmussen polled whether Republican voters thought Rush Limbaugh was the leader of their party, the specific question they asked was: "Agree or Disagree: 'Rush Limbaugh is the leader of the Republican Party—he says jump and they say how high.'"
[86]
Talking Points Memo has questioned the methodology of Rasmussen's Presidential Approval Index, which takes into account only those who "strongly" approve or disapprove of the President's job performance.
TPM noted that this inherently skews negative, and reported that multiple polling experts were critical of the concept.
[43] A
New York Times article claims Ramussen Reports research has a "record of relying on dubious sampling and weighting techniques."
[88]
A 2017 article by
Chris Cillizza for
CNN raised doubts about Rasmussen's accuracy, drawing attention specifically to potential
sampling biases such as the exclusion of calls to cell-phones (which, Cillizza argued, tended to exclude younger voters), and also more generally to a lack of methodological disclosure. Cillizza did, however, note in the same piece that Rasmussen was one of the more accurate polling organizations during the
2016 United States presidential election.
[89]
Founder Scott Rasmussen is the author of a book,
[90] and was a featured guest on a cruise by the conservative media outlet
The National Review, along with other conservative luminaries.
[91]
