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correction
A previous version of this article reported an incorrect date for the November elections. The general election will be held Nov. 7. The article has been corrected.
RICHMOND — A former senior aide to Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) is launching a nonprofit to poll Virginians on public policy issues every week, a high frequency that might help predict and even influence the outcome of the Nov. 7 legislative elections that are critical to the Republican’s agenda and national political prospects.
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Parker Slaybaugh, who left his post as Youngkin’s chief deputy secretary of agriculture and forestry in late July, will serve as executive director of Founders Insight, which plans to release its inaugural poll Tuesday. He described the venture as a nonpartisan effort to gauge voter sentiment ahead of the elections, when all 140 General Assembly seats will be on the ballot.
Slaybaugh said Founders Insight has no formal connection to Youngkin, whose hopes as a potential last-minute 2024 presidential candidate rest in part on the GOP’s ability to hang on to the House of Delegates and flip the Senate.
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But Slaybaugh is not moving far from Youngkin’s orbit. As he begins the polling venture, he also is taking a job as vice president of Link Public Affairs. Link is partially owned by Matthew Moran, a senior political adviser to Youngkin through Link’s sister company, Creative Direct.
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“In Virginia, with everyone fully focused on who will gain majorities in the House of Delegates and the Senate of Virginia, there is a void of public data and research on what voters actually think and want from their elected leaders,” Slaybaugh said in a written statement to The Washington Post. “Founders Insight will provide year-round, public opinion polling to better understand voters and inform policy makers what their constituents believe on a wide array of issues.”
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The nonprofit emerges as political campaigns increasingly view polling as a way to sway voters as much as take their pulse, said Bob Holsworth, a veteran Richmond political analyst. By commissioning polls on issues favorable to its candidate and pushing the media to report the results, Youngkin’s team could hope to gain an edge, Holsworth said.
“They are trying to use polling to frame a narrative about the issues they want to emphasize in the campaign, and hoping that they will not only use that in ads to voters, but also influence the media as well,” he said.
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Slaybaugh said Founders Insight will commission its polls from Co/efficient, a national polling firm that has a B-plus rating on FiveThirtyEight, which averages polls. Co/efficient will use a mix of survey methods, including live phone calls, texts and robocalls.
Founders Insight is a 501(c)(3) organization, which falls in a section of the Internal Revenue Code that covers charitable organizations. Organizations of this type are sometimes referred to as dark-money groups because their donations, which are tax-deductible, do not have to be disclosed.
"This is their opportunity to spin ... [the media] and say that they have some kind of legitimate polling operation that we know is political push polling and paid for by dark money,” said House Minority Leader Don L. Scott Jr. (D-Portsmouth).
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