Ivan Moore to speak at September 14 luncheon
Anchorage political researcher Ivan Moore will look back at Alaska’s hotly contested gubernatorial race in the August primary election and look ahead to the general in November. He’ll discuss the techniques used to find out what people are thinking and how to assess the validity of polls. You may not agree with Moore. But one thing is for sure, he’s never boring. For an entertaining and informative look at what’s known as Alaska’s favorite sport, you can count on Ivan Moore. (Read more about Ivan below.)
Luncheon Information
Thursday, September 14
11:30 a.m.
Golden Lion Hotel
1000 East 36th Avenue
Anchorage
Lunch: members $16; others $18
Reservations: Email Thetus Smith a thetus@gci.net by 10 p.m., Monday, September 11, saying you want a reservation for lunch. If you will have guests with you, please include their names, too. Or you may call 274-4723 and leave a message.
More about Moore
When national publications like the Christian Science Monitor or blogs like the Western Political Review want a pulse on Alaska politics, they often turn to Ivan Moore.
From ANWR to abortion to marijuana, the Anchorage political researcher has conducted polls on just about every hot-button topic in our state.
Moore has also tracked some of Alaska’s pivotal political races. He was a pollster for KTUU-TV during the 2004 Senate race that pitted Lisa Murkowski and former governor Tony Knowles. During the 2002 gubernatorial race, he worked as a consultant for Fran Ulmer’s campaign.
Sometimes Moore isn’t working for anyone, but often winds up playing consigliere, adviser, to some of Alaska’s most powerful politicians. This also helps him to get a pulse on what people are thinking. And that’s what motivates Moore, who says, “I enjoy nothing more than knowing what’s going on.”
Moore says his morning ritual is to comb through the “Letters to the Editor” section of the newspaper, which he calls one of the most valuable tools to measure public opinion. It factors into the much more scientific work of polling – in which Moore measures a candidate’s negatives and positives, or looks at where the undecided voters are leaning.
Ivan Moore learned to crunch the numbers in his home country of Great Britain, where he earned a mathematics degree at Nottingham University. After finishing his studies, he spent a year traveling and met his wife, Shelley, at a international youth hostel in Australia. A subsequent trip to Shelly’s home in Anchorage locked up Moore’s future as an Alaskan.
Moore moved here in February 1989. A year later, Anchorage pollster Mark Hellenthal gave him his first job as a political researcher. In 1996, he started his own company, Ivan Moore Research. The Moores have two children – Savannah, 15, and John, 13.
