Kevin Bacon Game: CNN's Polls Are Separated From HRC's Campaign In X Steps?

I came across the fairly remarkable article in the Omaha World-Herald this morning. Vin Gupta, the subject of virtually identical Washington Post and New York Times investigative profiles, boasts to the reporter that his return for investing in the Clinton's success has been worth it:

Clinton gives advice on how to extend the company's services into new markets. His expertise is used in the side of InfoUSA that sells services to political parties and candidates and nonprofit organizations, Gupta said.

More:

"We get back many times over what is spent on Bill," Gupta said. How much revenue can be attributed to the Clinton connection? "I would say over the last seven years, easily over $40 million."

And here's an appearance of a conflict of interest to chew on. InfoUSA, Gupta's firm, recently acquired Opinion Research Corp, which partners with CNN on political polling. InfoUSA helps Clinton's presidential campaign with voter modeling and provides the raw data for its microtargeting databases. So the answer to my question is: 2 steps. There's nothing intrinsically squirrelly about this connection; it reflects the consolidation of the industry more than anything else. But it might give a rival campaign a handy excuse to mentally shove those results aside.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/06/kevin-bacon-game-cnns-polls-are-separated-from-hrcs-campaign-in-x-steps/49704/