scetrone@heraldonline.com

After Republican criticism of Winthrop University’s widely published surveys of public opinion, a former state GOP official has asked the school to turn over all records related to the last three Winthrop Polls, including respondents’ identities.

Kurt Pickhardt, who worked for the S.C. Republican Party and then for former GOP presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty, requested a broad bundle of documents, including records of how respondents were chosen and who questioned them.

Citing academic freedom, Winthrop declined to provide many of the details Pickhardt requested, including faculty emails, according to documents the school sent to media Wednesday.

Pickhardt, now a Washington, D.C.-based political consultant, told The Herald he wanted details about how Scott Huffmon, a Winthrop political scientist and poll director, conducts the surveys.

“Winthrop is a state institution and therefore is subject to the Freedom of Information Act,” Pickhardt said via email. “Their polling has an impact on the public domain, and I am interested as to how Mr. Huffmon came to his conclusions – conclusions that get published far and wide and that many South Carolinians take as fact. Now I have an entirely different interest: What is he hiding?”

Huffmon said Pickhardt’s request was “over-reaching” and demanded “essentially everything written by everyone, in any email, about anything.

“This is an assault on academic freedom and tips the hand of the requester,” Huffmon said. “Everything of substance – methodology, all clients (ever), and training materials – have been provided and are accessible by anyone with a computer.”

Huffmon pointed to several places on Winthrop’s website where information Pickhardt requested about how the poll is conducted is available.

“All of these fundamental questions have been answered and put out in the open; therefore, it seems claims that we are ‘hiding’ something are disingenuous, at best,” Huffmon said.

Both parties complain

In December, state GOP director Matt Moore disputed Winthrop Poll findings that showed Republican Gov. Nikki Haley had lower approval ratings in the state than Democratic President Barack Obama.

Poll results at the time showed 34.6 percent of South Carolinians approved of Haley’s job performance, while 43 percent disapproved. Obama had a 44.8 percent approval rating in South Carolina.

Moore called the Winthrop Poll “highly questionable” and alleged that questions were biased. Moore couldn’t be reached Wednesday.

Pickhardt denied that his request was affiliated with any organization and didn’t respond to questions about his opinion of the Winthrop Poll.

Huffmon defended the poll in December, calling the criticism “unfounded.”

“Our methodology has been vetted by the Associated Press polling unit in the past,” he said Wednesday. “I am not sure the same can be said of whichever polls lead some to believe that our results are inaccurate. Although the Democrats criticized our poll as inaccurate when we predicted Nikki Haley would win the gubernatorial election, the people who would later claim our numbers were inaccurate were oddly silent.

“What could be more legitimate than studying the opinions of citizens toward their government by someone whose discipline studies governments?”

Huffmon started the Winthrop Poll in 2006. Funded in part by the John C. West Forum for civic engagement, the survey is intended to be “a regular snapshot” of residents’ opinions.

Trained interviewers, often Winthrop students, administer the polls in the telephone survey research lab on campus.

Respondents answer questions about public policy, social issues and current events. Media outlets nationwide cover the results.

In his April 25 emailed request, Pickhardt cited the state’s open records law. He asked for “any materials in the university’s possession, control or custody that reference or relate in any way to any poll conducted by Winthrop University, its faculty, its staff or its employees that references the ‘April 2012 Winthrop Poll,’ the ‘February 2012 Winthrop Poll,’ and/or the ‘December 2011 Winthrop Poll’ in any way.”

Winthrop pointed him to Web pages that included some of the information he requested and agreed to provide additional information that officials deemed public for a fee of $2,827.39 for staff time and printing costs, according to a response to Pickhardt signed by Winthrop spokeswoman Rebecca Masters.

Masters said she sent copies of Pickhardt’s request and the school’s response to media as part of a series of “courtesy contacts” to anyone who might be impacted by the issue.

Pickhardt specifically requested copies of any correspondence between Huffmon and members of the media.

‘Chilling effect’

Masters also forwarded a letter from the American Association of University Professors that called Pickhardt’s request a “probing and pervasive inquiry for sensitive information” that would “not only have a chilling effect on the immediate custodian of the targeted materials, but will also almost certainly have a broader import for academic freedom and free inquiry across the Winthrop University community.”

Pickhardt did not respond to questions about what he plans to do next.

Refusing to release documents claiming “academic freedom” is rare, said Bill Rogers, executive director of the S.C. Press Association and an open records law expert who reviewed Winthrop’s response for The Herald.

But the university is likely allowed to withhold much of the information Pickhardt requested.

“The Freedom of Information Act shields the release of research done by faculty members, and this likely applies to most of this request,” Rogers said. “However, any financial records of the poll involving the expenditure of funds would likely be open.”

Rogers added that correspondence with the media would not likely be covered by the academic exemption to the open records law.