The company said in a statement that it made this decision in light of the CNMI governor’s office and the ruling Covenant Party’s heightened and unparalleled energies expended the day before the Nov. 7 general elections.
Though the statistically sound poll disclosed its full methodology as thoroughly or even more so than the University of Guam’s poll published earlier that week, the governor’s Covenant Party chairman issued a specious press release in a classic case of “shoot the messenger” chiefly because their candidate was not prevailing, Marianas Consulting stated.
The three other candidates for governor did not issue statements.
Further, the governor’s office openly engaged in eyebrow-raising back-and-forth with a private company and the account of events and depth of involvement leave more questions to be asked than were answered, Marianas Consulting stated.
Consequently, this company terminated an employee with a personal relationship to Marianas Consulting’s principal consultant the same day the poll was released.
In media accounts it was acknowledged that they contacted the governor’s office to inform that the employee had been let go, a highly unusual action for what was a private and internal personnel matter.
Even more curious, the governor’s Covenant Party thought it appropriate to comment on this personnel issue, offering words of support for the supposed “hurt” caused, but in reality, adding insult to injury.
Principal consultant Jay Solly said: “On a personal note, my family and I are grateful for the outpouring of support from the community. We love Saipan and the kindness and giving hearts exhibited. We look forward to staying and will continue working for the community. It is likely that there would have been no effort to silence, discredit, or intimidate if the numbers were in Covenant’s favor. Again, neither I, nor my company, was contracted by any campaign when this poll was conducted, but now I know with certainty for whom I will not work — the rank amateurism of the Covenant Party opposition research linking Marianas Consulting to an Ontario-based company that happens to share the name made me chuckle. Incidentally, I worked in Moscow in 2005, did they check with Vladimir Putin too?”
Marianas Consulting concedes that a runoff poll again employing random sampling in line with theories of probability would likely be informative and serve well the interests of the people.
But, Solly said, “even statistics with reported sampling error come under fire in this chilling political climate fostered to stifle dissent. This, coupled with the ‘spiral of silence’ effect — where voters are less likely to voice an opinion if they fear reprisal, job loss, or isolation from the existing political apparatus — make polling in the CNMI uniquely challenging.”
The CNMI-registered company iterates that the only polls that truly matter are election polls where the free exercise of choice is safeguarded.
