I am the professor who oversaw the Harvard survey discussed in the article last week ("Kerry's campaign focuses on college voters," .Thanks for the nice coverage, but I want to correct something important.
Philipp Tsipman, president of the Tufts Republicans, quotes a separate poll (Zogby, March 31) that, he says, shows Bush over Kerry 51.9 percent to 36.6 percent within the 18-24 demographic. This quote comes from the Bush campaign. But the numbers are made up. No Zogby poll on 18-24 year olds had Bush up.
Indeed, the March 31 poll had Kerry over Bush by more than we found in our poll. I confirmed this with John Zogby. I am not a partisan, and last year the Democrats were unhappy that my poll had Bush over the Dems by so much. But the facts are the facts, and clouding the debate with false numbers is a real shame. Mr. Tsipman owes the Tufts community an "I'm sorry."
David King
Research Director at the Harvard Institute of Politics
Professor of Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government
