The Horse Race Podcast
Your weekly look at politics, policy, and elections in Massachusetts.
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Steve Koczela
Steve Koczela is Founder and President of the MassINC Polling Group. He appears regularly in local, state, and national media outlets discussing polling, politics, and policy. His has written regularly for CNN, WBUR, NHPR, The Boston Globe, CommonWealth Magazine, and other outlets.
He has grown MPG from its infancy to a nationally known and respected polling provider. MPG is committed to elevating the public’s voice in discussions of politics and policy. MPG’s reputation for excellence and accuracy ensures a high level of trust in the policy community.
Prior to founding The MassINC Polling Group, Steve led survey research programs for the U.S. Department of State in Iraq, in key states for President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, and conducted surveys and polls on behalf of many private corporations. His polling analysis is often cited in local, state, and national media outlets. He is past President of the New England Chapter of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (NEAAPOR) and served as Associate Editor of the Statistical Journal of the IAOS. He lives in Melrose, Massachusetts, and is a veteran of the war in Iraq.
Jennifer Smith
Jennifer Smith writes for CommonWealth Beacon and co-hosts its weekly podcast, The Codcast. Her areas of focus include housing, social issues, courts and the law, and politics and elections.
A California native who also lived in Utah, Jennifer has covered Massachusetts since 2011 for a variety of publications. She worked breaking news in the Boston Globe’s metro section and provided courtroom coverage of the Boston Marathon bomber trial for the international wire service Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) while completing her undergraduate journalism degree at Northeastern University in Boston. For four years, Jennifer was a staff writer and later news editor for the Dorchester Reporter, covering her home neighborhood and the city of Boston with a particular focus on politics and development.
Her work and commentary have appeared in WBUR, GBH News, Harvard Public Health Magazine, and Politico’s Massachusetts Playbook. She has co-hosted MassINC’s Massachusetts politics and policy podcast The Horse Race since 2018, interviewing newsmakers, journalists, and elected officials across the state.