10/27/00 6:00 p.m.
RAND Authors All Democrats
The partisan tilt behind a “non-partisan” study.

By NR staff

he RAND study allegedly debunking George W. Bush's education record is supposed to be non-partisan. Problem is every one of its authors is a Democrat, according to the California registrar of voters.

Laura S. Hamilton, Daniel F. McCaffrey, and Brian M. Stecher, co-authors of the study, are all registered Democrats, an official at the registrar confirmed to NRO today.

The study's main author is Stephen P. Klein. According to the registrar, there are three Stephen P. Klein's on the rolls, two registered as Democrats, one as a Republican. But Klein has a reputation in the field as liberal Democrat.

Education expert Checker Finn told NRO yesterday, "The new RAND `study' is a skimpy thing done by a card-carrying liberal."

So that makes it four-for-four. Asked to comment on the partisan tilt of the study's authors the secretary of RAND CEO James A. Thomson hung up on NRO (for the record, Thomson is registered as "declined to state").

When NRO finally reached someone at RAND willing to comment, he initially said he couldn't confirm the party affiliations of the authors, then sounded caught off guard when told that the registrar already had.

Asked if the Democratic affiliation of the authors had any effect on the timing and tenor of the politically-charged report, the RAND official replied: "No. None. We don't ask people their political affiliation at RAND."

Well, maybe they should start.

Melissa Seckora contributed to this report.