WASHINGTON — Political analyst, pollster, editor and professor Dotty Lynch died Sunday, Aug. 10 at the age of 69 after battling melanoma.
Politico calls Lynch “an early leader among women in the polling industry at a time when survey research — like most sectors of political consulting — was dominated overwhelmingly by men.”
In 1984, Lynch, a Democratic pollster, became the first woman to be the chief pollster for a presidential campaign, hired by Democrat Gary Hart. From 1985 through 2005, she served as the senior political editor for CBS News.
A CBS internal memo from “Evening News” producer Ward Sloane calls Lynch “a rare combination of book smart, street smart and incredibly funny.”
At CBS, she re-created and formatted The CBS News Campaign Directory in 1992 — “a pocket-sized book that had every phone number of every official any political reporter or producer could want. It was the envy of the road
