POLLING IS AN act of political resistance. It agglomerates the messy and inconvenient opinions of everyday people, kneads them into a whole, and forces them through the door into the […]
Steve Koczela
Steve Koczela is the President of The MassINC Polling Group, where he has grown the organization from its infancy to a nationally known and respected polling provider. During the 2014 election cycle, MPG conducted election polling for WBUR, the continuation of a three-year partnership. Koczela again led the endeavor, producing polls which came within one point of the margin in both the Massachusetts gubernatorial and U.S. Senate Elections. He was also lead writer for Poll Vault, WBUR’s political reporting section during the 2014 Election Cycle.
He has led survey research programs for the U.S. Department of State in Iraq, in key states for President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, and has conducted surveys and polls on behalf of many private corporations. Koczela brings a deep understanding of the foundations of public opinion and a wide ranging methodological expertise. He earned U.S. Department of State recognition for his leading edge work on sample evaluation in post conflict areas using geospatial systems.
Koczela is frequent guest on WBUR as well as many other news and talk programs in Massachusetts and elsewhere. His polling analysis is often cited in local, state, and national media outlets. He currently serves as President of the New England Chapter of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (NEAAPOR). Koczela holds a Master’s degree in Marketing Research from the University of Wisconsin and is a veteran of the war in Iraq.
Posted inTransportation
T made little progress reducing absenteeism in 2016
MBTA OFFICIALS MADE ALMOST NO PROGRESS last year in curbing employee absenteeism, in part because success in reducing one type of absence was offset by a surge in another area. […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Jackson shakes up the map
THAT BOSTON CONVERSATION about race is about to get super interesting, but perhaps not in the way Mayor Marty Walsh intended. Walsh, who announced the conversations late last year, will […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics, State House News Service
Baker misses key problem with Electoral College
AS PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP prepares to take office despite losing the popular vote, many Massachusetts voters may be less than thrilled about the Electoral College process But Gov. Charlie Baker […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Is MBTA absenteeism really declining?
MBTA officials regularly report they are reining in rampant worker absenteeism, but the progress they report is largely an illusion created by making comparisons to 2015, when severe winter weather […]
Posted inPolitics
2016 Election live-blog
5:19 PM:Where to find us this evening as results come in. That wraps it up for us here, but the night is just getting started. Steve Koczela will be on […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Clinton’s debate victory margins historic
HILLARY CLINTON ADMINISTERED a historic thumping to Donald Trump in the three presidential debates. The candidates met Wednesday night for the third and final time, and the outcome was the […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Baker still Mr. Popularity, but his T is not
CHARLIE BAKER WALKS on water. Earlier this year, National Journal dubbed him “the most popular politician in America,” and he remains close to those lofty heights today. He has a sparkling […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Was the Trump wave a polling mirage?
DONALD TRUMP’S poll numbers are slipping in Iowa, and a new national poll is the first in a while to show him trailing. But a closer look at the polling […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Gallup chief clarifies horse race polling decision
POLITICO REPORTED Wednesday morning that Gallup will not track the so-called “horse race” in this year’s presidential primary, and would not commit to doing so in the general election. The […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Say it ain’t so, CNN
CNN’S CRITERIA for deciding who makes the grown-ups table for the GOP debate next month doesn’t make sense. It’s the sports equivalent of declaring the Red Sox losers in the […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
DPH press release understates growth in opioid deaths
THE STATE’S OPIOID EPIDEMIC is worsening much faster than the Department of Public Health (DPH) said this week in a press release. Over the last two years, there has been […]
Posted inOlympics, Opinion
4 things to watch in Olympics debate
THURSDAY NIGHT, Boston 2024 and No Boston Olympics will meet in a debate hosted by Fox25 and the Boston Globe. Boston 2024’s representatives will be chairman Steve Pagliuca and Daniel […]
Posted inOlympics, Opinion
Americans really want to host Olympics
AMERICANS REALLY WANT to host the 2024 Olympics. They want it more than they have in the past. They want it more than other countries do. They want it more […]
Posted inOlympics, Opinion
Support for Boston 2024 is not too low to win Olympic bid
IT’S NO SECRET THAT BOSTON 2024 has a perception problem. The public is skeptical and the polling on Boston’s Olympic bid has been consistently ugly for the last several months. […]
Posted inThe Back Story, Transportation
Baker administration revises T absence rate
THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION is now acknowledging that the MBTA absenteeism information cited in a report by the governor’s special advisory panel probably overstated the problem and that the reported comparison […]
Posted inThe Back Story, Transportation
Fact-checking MBTA union’s radio ad
WHILE BEACON HILL engages in a high-stakes debate about the future of the T, the Boston Carmen’s Union is running ads on the radio that play loose with the facts. […]
Posted inThe Back Story, Transportation
T report misses mark on absenteeism numbers
ONE OF THE MOST ALARMING figures to come out of Gov. Charlie Baker’s MBTA panel report earlier this month was 57. That’s the average number of working days that T […]
Posted inPolitics
Polling standards changing rapidly
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION of Public Opinion Research is a rather staid institution. Its annual conference is four days of panel discussions on complex statistical problems in the field. (Sample conference […]
Posted inThe Back Story, Transportation
Commuter rail ridership numbers don’t add up
COMMUTER RAIL RIDERSHIP is up. No, it’s down. Actually, it’s held steady. These three statements cannot all be true. And yet, all three are supported by official data collected and published […]
Posted inOlympics
Olympics numbers don’t add up
BOSTON MAYOR MARTY WALSH and representatives of Boston 2024 have made claims about levels of public support for the idea of a Boston Olympics that are not supported by the […]
Posted inPolitics
Bromancing the vote
CHARLIE BAKER SQUEAKED into the governor’s office by such a narrow margin that pretty much any demographic group can claim to be responsible for the last few votes that pushed […]
Posted inPolitics
Not exactly party time in Massachusetts
political parties in Massachusetts are approaching a crossroads, as fewer new registrants choose to affiliate with either party and the number of unenrolled voters climbs to historic highs. Since 1978, […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Is DCF really stretched thin?
Many of the stories covering the recent tragedies on the watch of the Department of Children and Families tend to portray an agency stretched thin by budget cuts over the […]