Election Coverage Boot Camp: Prepping for polls, 9:30 a.m. Feb. 2

The National Press Club Journalism Institute and the Regional Reporters Association are kicking off a yearlong series of programs for reporters covering the 2012 campaign with a panel discussion on covering polls at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 2.

Please reserve at [email protected]

The program will be held in the Club's Bloomberg Training Center. Topics will include:

How campaigns and the media use polls for different purposes

How to read the numbers and find stories that are not in the press release

How to avoid being played, and to tell good polls from bad ones

Top ten mistakes reporters make while covering polls

The panel will be moderated by Rick Dunham, president of the National Press Club Journalism Institute board and Washington bureau chief of the Houston Chronicle and Hearst Newspapers.

Panelists will be:

Celinda Lake of Lake Research Partners, a Democratic strategist whose clients have included national party committees, dozens of Democratic incumbents and challengers at all levels of the electoral process.

Ed Goeas of The Tarrance Group, a Republican strategiest whose clients have included John McCain's presidential campaign, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, four U.S. senators and 53 House members.

Trevor Tompson of The Associated Press, who is responsible for AP's original polling worldwide and enforces AP's standards for reporting on polls.