Justin Elliott at TPM Muckraker has a story up in which he describes the academic backround of Del Ali, the head of Research 2000.
"I consider myself a political scientist," Ali told TPMmuckraker in an interview today. "If you want to call me a statistical wiz, I am not."
Ali's academic history is primarily in recreation. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a BS in Recreation (Public Health) in 1983, according to a university spokesman. Records show he also got an MA in Recreation from Maryland in 1991.
Ali explained that there was "quite a bit of statistics work" in the MA program, where his thesis examined the theory that certified coaches have a positive effect on adolescent self-esteem. He also claims to have had an undergraduate minor in political science. Perhaps he did, although the University of Maryland doesn't offer a minor in political science these days -- probably because the field is too broad to cover in any depth at all by taking less than a major in it.
This is just ludicrous. I was actually a political science MAJOR, and even took a course specifically in public opinion, but I wouldn't presume to call myself a "political scientist" or "social scientist," or to open my own polling firm. But he was VP of Mason-Dixon before opening Research 2000, right? Well, yes but according to the article, his duties there consisted of sales "and a lot of the stuff I do now."
Just as I was, TPM Muckraker was unable to find any reference to Research 2000 in the Maryland corporation records, and Ali apparently told them that he incorporated with "self-proprietorship" in 2000. This is a complete non sequitur, since a sole proprietorship (which I assume is what he meant) is, by definition, not a corporation.
Yesterday, TPM published the text of a letter it received from Del Ali, which frankly must be read in its entirety to be believed. It is rambling, filled with typos, and contains all kinds of allegations combined with a statement that he's not going to reveal his raw data, basically because it wouldn't make any difference anyway.
In addition, the case now shows up on the Northern District of California website, and it's been assigned to Magistrate Judge James. That may be surprising to some lawyers from other jurisdictions, many of which assign most civil litigation (other than perhaps narrow categories) to the Article III judges, but my admittedly somewhat limited experience with the Northern District of California is that they had very good Magistrate Judges, and gave them more responsibility in civil cases -- including major ones -- than is the case in many districts. I'm not familiar with Magistrate Judge James, but one of the best judges I've ever appeared before was a now-retired Magistrate Judge from the Northern District of California.