Mark Penn digital polling data collection and oral history
Scope and Contents
This collection contains digital files with subject content of polling data for William Jefferson Clinton's presidency, the 2008 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, and Labour Party polling as well as speeches, and debate preparation content. The materials cover 1988-2005 with the bulk of the data falling between 1996-2007. These twenty-eight original bound volumes and binders of weekly strategy session agendas (polling data, media records, policy discussion) were created by Mark Penn (DNC Pollster who worked with Bill Clinton during his years in office). In addition, is an oral history conducted in 2019 by GW professor Dr. Michael Cornfield with Mark Penn.
Dates
- Creation: 1988-2008, 2019
Creator
- Penn, Mark J (Donor, Person)
- Cornfield, Michael, 1955 - (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
These files are available for research. At this time the pdf copies of the polling data do not meet GW University standards for accessibility compliance and have not been uploaded to the Internet. These files are available for use in our reading room and also researchers may ask for remote access copies by contacting Special Collection staff. The oral history has four parts and for the recordings for which the SCRC has a transcript the recording and transcript have been uploaded to the Internet. For part 3 of there recording please ask to listen in the reading room or for a copy to be provided to you as a remote user.
Conditions Governing Use
To the extent that he owns copyright, the donor has licensed his/her materials to be used according to the terms of the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International creative commons license. Copyright in other items in this collection may be held by their respective creators. For activities that the researcher determines fall under fair use as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission to cite or publish is required. For re-use of materials in the collection not created by the donor, researchers are responsible for determining who may hold materials' copyrights, determining if the intended re-use falls under fair use, and obtaining approval from the copyright holder if the intended use does not fall under fair use. Researchers do not need anything further from The George Washington University Special Collections Research Center. Please contact Special Collections if the copyright status of the materials you wish to reuse is unclear. Staff will provide additional information.
Biographical / Historical
Mark Penn grew up in Riverdale, NY. He graduated from the elite Horace Mann School in New York City in 1972 and Harvard University in 1976 with a degree political science. In 1975, Penn and Doug Schoen, founded the polling firm Penn Schoen Berland. Early clients included Ed Koch, Luis Herrera Campins in Venezuela, Menachem Begin for re-election as prime minister of Israel,
President Bill Clinton, and British prime minister Tony Blair. Penn was a chief strategist and pollster in the Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential campaign.
In July 2012, Penn was named Corporate Vice President for Strategic and Special Projects at Microsoft Corporation. In 2015, Penn left Microsoft and created his own company called The Stagwell Group dealing with advertising and public relations. He is currently president and managing partner in this private equity fund focused on the marketing services industry.
Extent
33 digital object(s) (33 digital files)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
In 1975, Penn and Doug Schoen, founded the polling firm Penn Schoen Berland. Early clients included Ed Koch, Luis Herrera Campins in Venezuela, Menachem Begin for re-election as prime minister of Israel, President Bill Clinton, and British prime minister Tony Blair. Penn was a chief strategist and pollster in the Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential campaign. He has worked for Microsoft and is currently President and Managing Partner of The Stagwell Group, a private equity fund focused on the marketing services industry. This collection contains digital files with subject content of polling data for William Jefferson Clinton's presidency, the 2008 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, and Labour Party polling as well as speeches, and debate preparation content. The materials cover 1988-2005 with the bulk of the data falling between 1996-2007. In addition, there is an oral history conducted in 2019 by GW professor Dr. Michael Cornfield with Mark Penn.
Arrangement
Organized in three series: HRC data index [Hillary Clinton polling data], William Jefferson Clinton polling data and Labour Party polling data, and Oral history [Mark Penn and Dr. Michael Cornfield]
Physical Location
Materials are stored off-site, and will require additional retrieval time. Please contact the Special Collections Research Center for more information.
Custodial History
Per the agreement with Mark Penn the bound volumes were provided to GW for digitization and then were returned to Mr. Penn.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Mark Penn February 27 2018 and September 9 2019 (accession 2019.010)
- Title
- Guide to the Mark Penn polling data collection, 1988-2008, 2019
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University
- Date
- 2019
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English
Repository Details
Part of the Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University Repository
George Washington University Gelman Library
2130 H Street NW
Washington DC 20052 United States of America
speccoll@gwu.edu
