Watts, Luntz Form Partnership
Former GOP congressman J.C. Watts Jr. of Oklahoma is going into business with conservative pollster Frank Luntz to do market research. The new company will be called Watts-Luntz Communications.
Watts and Luntz couldn't be more in love, according to a release from Watts announcing the partnership. "J.C. Watts is the best pure communicator in America," Luntz is quoted as saying.
"Frank is probably the best language artist in the business," added Watts, Republicans' most visible black lawmaker before he retired last year. "He is the maestro of messaging."
Others have less regard for Luntz.
He was officially reprimanded two years ago by the National Council on Public Polls, a polling watchdog organization, for claiming on MSNBC that views of participants in a focus group he organized at the Republican National Convention were "representative" opinions of Americans.
The American Association for Public Opinion Research, the professional association of pollsters, found Luntz in violation of its ethics code when he repeatedly refused to make public details of research he conducted to support the GOP's Contract With America nearly a decade ago.