Mihos/UMass Pollster Violated Ethics Laws

When I first heard about the UMass-Lowell pollster Louis DiNatale having violated conflict of interest laws by conducting polls for UMass at the same time he was conducting polls on behalf of then gubernatorial candidate Christy Mihos, I immediately thought of this poll, which I noted at the time was a big wet kiss to Mihos. That poll, however, was a Suffolk University poll, not a UMass poll. The UMass poll DiNatale conducted while he was on Mihos' payroll was this one, which was of the candidate vs. candidate variety.

Looking over the poll results, it's hard to conclude that DiNatale let his connection with Mihos bias his results at all, so it's probably just as well that his only punishment for the conflict of interest was publicizing that he'd violated the law. Still, one wonders what conflict of interest laws are for if there's no penalty for breaking them.