A prominent Iowa political scientist who goes by the nickname “Dr. Politics” has routinely made misleading claims suggesting he has gleaned unique political insight from a focus group, when he actually just discusses issues with acquaintances and contacts, The Associated Press has found.
Iowa State University professor Steffen Schmidt, who is frequently quoted about the Iowa caucuses and writes guest columns in Iowa’s largest newspapers, has written repeatedly about how his focus group astutely informed his views on issues such as Hillary Clinton’s emails, the fallout from overseas terrorist attacks and Democrats’ struggles.
Pressed by the AP for details, Schmidt initially claimed his focus group consisted of 15 insightful, trusted acquaintances who helped him be “right more often than others.” He reversed course this week after the AP requested their communications under the state’s open-records law, saying he doesn’t have any set panel. Instead, he said he refers to anyone he speaks with to inform his views as “my focus group,” be they colleagues, students or fellow customers at the feed store.
“My columns are political commentary and I do not present them as formal research,” said Schmidt, who recently conceded that the term focus group “may sound too formal to some of my critics.”
Experts say Schmidt’s use of the term is misleading and lends undue weight to his perspectives. In academia, studies that use focus groups are expected to be carefully designed to gain insight into public opinion and typically are monitored by an oversight panel.
“Likely the words ‘focus group’ sounded more respectable than just ‘listening to a bunch of my friends,’” said retired University of Minnesota professor Richard Krueger, co-author of “Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research.” “It is unfortunate that the professor chooses to use a misleading word for the research because this raises questions about the quality of the research.”
The AP started looking into the issue Nov. 14, when Schmidt wrote in Iowa’s second largest newspaper that Clinton’s outreach to Blacks, women and gays “was identified by my focus group as ‘micro targeting’ which alienated many voters who turned to vote for Donald Trump.”
