2009 Pollie Awards and Conference

Mark S. Mellman

Mark Mellman is one of the nation's leading public opinion researchers and communication strategists. He is CEO of The Mellman Group and recently named "Pollster of the Year" by the American Association of Political Consultants. The Mellman group is a polling and consulting firm whose clients include leading political figures, Fortune 500 companies, and some of the nation's most important public interest groups. A leading political researcher and strategist, Mellman counts among his clients The Majority Leaders of The U.S. House (Steny Hoyer) and Senate (Harry Reid). In addition, Mellman has helped guide the campaigns of some sixteen U.S. Senators, eight Gov-ernors and over two dozen Members of Congress. Mellman also serves as consultant to many of the nations most important public interest organizations ranging from The National Education Association, to The National Environmental Trust and The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. Government agencies, including the Department of Justice, the World Bank and the State Department have also sought Mellman's guidance. Mellman's corporate clients include Intuit (the makers of Quicken), AT&T, Coca Cola, and United Airlines. His groundbreaking research has helped define how nonprofits and businesses can use the Internet for online communications, organizing, and fundraising.

The firm's string of upset victories has led the Boston Globe to call The Mellman Group Washington's "hottest" political consulting firm, and the New Republic describes Mellman as "a leading Democratic technologist." Capitol Hill's newspaper, Roll Call, named Mellman one of the most influential people in Washington when it comes to electing candidates to Congress.

Mellman received his undergraduate degree from Princeton, and graduate degrees from Yale University, where he taught in the Political Science department. He has served as a consultant on politics to CBS News, a presidential debate analyst for PBS, and is currently on the faculty of The George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management. Mellman's op-eds have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, among other leading papers and he writes a weekly column for The Hill, the newspaper for and about Congress.