Leading pollster to speak at Yale about 2012 election

March 16, 2012. New Haven, CT—Peter D. Hart, a leading analyst of public opinion in the United States, will deliver a talk on this year’s national elections, on Thursday, March 22 at 4 p.m. in Luce Hall Auditorium, 34 Hillhouse Ave.

Titled “Election 2012—America in a Transformational Era,” the talk is the Coca-Cola World Fund at Yale Lecture, sponsored by the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, the Yale Law School, and the Yale School of Management. It is free and open to the public. Viewers may watch this event live online, by visiting http://www.livestream.com/yale.

Since 1971, Hart has been chair of Peter D. Hart Research Associates. Along with the late Robert Teeter, and currently with Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies, Hart has been a pollster for NBC News and The Wall Street Journal since 1989. In the political realm, Hart has represented more than 40 U.S. senators and 30 governors, ranging from Hubert Humphrey and Lloyd Bentsen to Jay Rockefeller and Bob Graham. He has also worked on public policy and cultural issues for such clients as the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Kennedy Center. Hart Research has also undertaken studies in South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, and has conducted strategic planning projects for such corporate clients as Coca-Cola, IBM, Fannie Mae, AT&T, and Tiffany & Co.

Characterizing Hart as “probably the foremost Washington pollster for the Democratic Party and its centrist candidates,” the National Journal named him to its list of 150 national leaders who shape federal government policy. In 2002, Hart was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contribution to Campaign Consulting by the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC).

The Coca-Cola World Fund at Yale was established in 1992 by the late Roberto C. Goizueta, former chair and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company and 1953 a Yale alumnus, to support intersecting endeavors among specialists in international relations, international law, and the management of international enterprises and organizations. Previous lecturers have included Michael Doyle, Senator Gary Hart, Tom Friedman, Nicholas Kristof, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Senator Sam Nunn, Sadako Ogata, Samantha Power, Mary Robinson, and Muhtar Kent.

Contact Information:

Marilyn Wilkes

The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale

(203) 432-3413