Lindholm Company Blog

The job performance ratings for the EWEB Board have remained generally constant for the past year and a half.

QUESTION:
How would you rate the job the Eugene Water and Electric Board of Directors is doing: excellent, good, fair, poor?

The “Zogby” method of assessing job performance is used where “excellent” and “good” are grouped under approval and “fair” and “poor” are grouped under disapproval. This categorization usually correlates well with an incumbent’s electoral chances.

METHODOLOGY:
All surveys consist of 200 telephone interviews of likely Eugene General Election voters. The margin of error at the overall sample median is plus or minus 7 percent.

The surveys were conducted June 14-15, 2010, September 29-30, 2010, November 29-30, 2010, January 24-25, 2011, May 25-26, 2011, and September 26-27, 2011.

The job performance rating for the Lane County Commission are significantly below where they were a year and a half ago. The approval rating has been declining steadly.

The disapproval rating increased the second half of 2010 and has remained high since then. The timing roughly corresponds with the public meetings lawsuit. The conservative victory in November 2010 could have caused the improvement. The lawsuit victory in January 2011 probably led to a big drop.

QUESTION:
How would you rate the job the Lane County Board of Commissioners is doing: excellent, good, fair, poor?

The “Zogby” method of assessing job performance is used where “excellent” and “good” are grouped under approval and “fair” and “poor” are grouped under disapproval. This categorization usually correlates well with an incumbent’s electoral chances.

METHODOLOGY:
All surveys consist of 200 telephone interviews of likely Eugene General Election voters. The margin of error at the overall sample median is plus or minus 7 percent.

The surveys were conducted June 14-15, 2010, September 29-30, 2010, November 29-30, 2010, January 24-25, 2011, May 25-26, 2011, and September 26-27, 2011.

The job performance ratings for the Eugene City Council have remained relatively constant over the past year and a half.

QUESTION:
How would you rate the job the Eugene City Council is doing: excellent, good, fair, poor?

The “Zogby” method of assessing job performance is used where “excellent” and “good” are grouped under approval and “fair” and “poor” are grouped under disapproval. This categorization usually correlates well with an incumbent’s electoral chances.

METHODOLOGY:
All surveys consist of 200 telephone interviews of likely Eugene General Election voters. The margin of error at the overall sample median is plus or minus 7 percent.

The surveys were conducted June 14-15, 2010, September 29-30, 2010, November 29-30, 2010, January 24-25, 2011, May 25-26, 2011, and September 26-27, 2011.

The volatility during the 2010 election is clear. Things have calmed down since then.

These numbers have been generally at this level since 2006.

By way of comparison, these numbers are well below Jim Torrey’s typical numbers when he was mayor from 1997 through 2005.

The “Zogby” method of assessing job performance is used where “excellent” and “good” are grouped under approval and “fair” and “poor” are grouped under disapproval. This categorization usually correlates well with an incumbent’s electoral chances.

QUESTION:
How would you rate the job Kitty Piercy is doing: excellent, good, fair, poor?

METHODOLOGY:
All surveys consist of 200 telephone interviews of likely Eugene General Election voters. The margin of error at the overall sample median is plus or minus 7 percent.

The surveys were conducted June 14-15, 2010, September 29-30, 2010, November 29-30, 2010, January 24-25, 2011, May 25-26, 2011, and September 26-27, 2011.

The 2010 election year was quite a bit more volatile than 2011. Kitty Piercy’s rating has settled down to its long-term average. In general, she is well liked.

These favorability ratings are similar to the public surveys from the 2006 and 2007 period.

By way of comparison, these numbers are well below Jim Torrey’s typical numbers when he was mayor.

QUESTION:
Now, I am going to read the names of some people. Please tell me whether you have heard of each. IF HEARD OF … Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Kitty Piercy?

METHODOLOGY:
All surveys consist of 200 telephone interviews of likely Eugene General Election voters. The margin of error at the overall sample median is plus or minus 7 percent.

The surveys were conducted June 14-15, 2010, September 29-30, 2010, November 29-30, 2010, January 24-25, 2011, May 25-26, 2011, and September 26-27, 2011.

Eugeneans strongly support the Eugene City Council saying the Pledge of Allegiance. For the overall results, see :http://lindholmcompanyblog.com/?p=6551.

This post covers the demographics.

The divisions are pretty clear. Republicans are the most supportive. Non-Republicans in north and west Eugene are the next most supportive. Both groups are strongly supportive. Non-Republicans from central and south Eugene are slightly opposed.

QUESTION:
Do you support or oppose the Eugene City Council reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at its meetings? IF SUPPORT OR OPPOSE: Is that strongly or somewhat?

METHODOLOGY:
The survey consists of 200 telephone interviews conducted September 26-27, 2011 of likely Eugene General Election voters. The margin of error at the overall sample median is plus or minus 7 percent.

Regarding the geographic divisions: Central Eugene includes Ward 7. South Eugene includes wards 1, 2, and 3. North Eugene includes wards 4 and 5. West Eugene includes wards 6 and 8. For the current Ward boundaries see: http://www.eugene-or.gov
(http://www.eugene-or.gov/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=267&PageID=4574&cached=true&mode=2&userID=2)

Here we look at the second commissioner found guilty of breaking the public meetings law.

Rob Handy’s favorability trend is at: http://lindholmcompanyblog.com/?p=6774.

As one can see above, Peter Sorenson’s favorability also took a hit from the public meetings law court case. However, the hit was not nearly as big as the one Rob Handy faced. Sorenson was much better known at the time of the case while Handy was still more of a blank slate getting introduced to people. Simply put, this means that more of what people know about Handy came from this one case.

QUESTION:
Now, I am going to read the names of some people. Please tell me whether you have heard of each. IF HEARD OF … Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Peter Sorenson?

METHODOLOGY:
All surveys consist of 200 telephone interviews of likely Eugene General Election voters. The margin of error at the overall sample median is plus or minus 7 percent.

The surveys were conducted June 14-15, 2010, September 29-30, 2010, November 29-30, 2010, January 24-25, 2011, May 25-26, 2011, and September 26-27, 2011.

With county redistricting done, people are starting to look at the headliner local race of 2012: North Eugene County Commission.

Above is the favorability rating trend for incumbent Rob Handy since the middle of 2010. Tthe public meetings law violations verdict against him was delivered in January 2011. Three surveys were conducted before that date and three surveys have been conducted after that date.

Rob Handy’s favorability abruptly dropped, from a solid 30 to 15 percent edge to a 27 to 24 percent virtual tie, with the public meetings law court case result. Almost all the new deciders appear to have been unfavorables.

Handy’s rating has not recovered. The April settlement does not appear to have helped.

The sample covers the entire City of Eugene not his North Eugene County Commission district.

QUESTION:
Now, I am going to read the names of some people. Please tell me whether you have heard of each. IF HEARD OF … Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Rob Handy?

METHODOLOGY:
All surveys consist of 200 telephone interviews of likely Eugene General Election voters. The margin of error at the overall sample median is plus or minus 7 percent.

The surveys were conducted June 14-15, 2010, September 29-30, 2010, November 29-30, 2010, January 24-25, 2011, May 25-26, 2011, and September 26-27, 2011.

In general, Eugeneans are far more optimistic about Eugene than Americans as a whole are about the nation.

One further observation is that the trend is volatile. Over the years the rating seems to be a composite of how Eugene is doing and how Eugene is doing relative to the rest of the country.

QUESTION:
In general, do you feel Eugene is heading in the right direction or do you think things have gotten off on the wrong track?

METHODOLOGY:
All surveys consist of 200 telephone interviews of likely Eugene General Election voters. The margin of error at the overall sample median is plus or minus 7 percent.

The surveys were conducted June 14-15, 2010, September 29-30, 2010, November 29-30, 2010, January 24-25, 2011, May 25-26, 2011, and September 26-27, 2011.

As one would expect during a period of slow or negative economic growth, Eugeneans are rating economic growth as going too slowly. Virtually no one is saying that Eugene’s economic growth is “too fast.”

To gain a clearer picture of how Eugeneans are assessing growth issues, one should also look at their population growth assessment. The polling trend for that question is at http://lindholmcompanyblog.com/?p=6799.

The wording of the economic growth question was designed to parallel a question that used to be asked on the Eugene Community Survey. The economic growth and population growth questions used to be asked in parallel.

QUESTION:
Do you believe that recent economic growth in Eugene has been too fast, too slow, or just about right?

METHODOLOGY:
All surveys consist of 200 telephone interviews of likely Eugene General Election voters. The margin of error at the overall sample median is plus or minus 7 percent.