Mark Mellman, an American Jew and one of Washington's top Political consultants, is now advising Yair Lapid as a campaign Strategist for the Yesh Atid party. In an exclusive interview to Nadav Peri on Israel's channel 10, Mellman says Lapid represents a wave of new politics, and that "Yair is a breath of fresh air, a person who can change that kind of [old] politics."
Suggesting the the media poll are "very poorly done", Yesh Atid does twice as well among people reached on cellphone than when reached on land-line. So, "those polls that exclude cellphones are underestimating significantly that number of seats Yesh Atid is getting," he added.
"Israelis should only hope she doesn't do for the country whats she did for Kadima," Mellman said of Tzipi Livni, Lapid's main rival at this point. Livni is a threat to Lapid's rise in the short term, he admitted, but "what we are seeing in the most recent polls, is people moving back to Yair [Lapid] and away from Livni," he said.
Mark Mellman is
CEO of The Mellman Group, a polling and consulting firm whose clients
include the Majority Leaders of
both the U.S. House and Senate. The firm has picked up a Republican seat
every election cycle for the 25 years Mellman has been in business and
is the only major Democratic polling firm never to have lost an
incumbent re-election for Senate or Governor. In addition to Leader
Harry Reid, Senate clients include Maria Cantwell, Daniel Akaka, Barbara
Boxer, Carl Levin, and Frank Lautenberg. Gubernatorial clients include
Jon Corzine, Jennifer Granholm and Jim Doyle.
