Lindholm Company Blog

As with Mayor Piercy, the job performance of the Eugene City Council also dropped significantly since January. It is likely the election campaign and landslide defeat were at least part of the cause.

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

METHODOLOGY:
200 live telephone interviews of likely 2014 Eugene General Election voters were conducted each of January 23-24 and June 10-11, 2013. The margin of error at the sample median is 7 percent.

Following standard methodology, the excellent and good are grouped as approve and fair and poor are grouped as disapprove.

The job performance of Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy has dropped significantly since before the Service Fee election. It is likely the election campaign and landslide defeat of the measure were at least part of the cause.

Mayor Piercy now has one of the lowest approval ratings since taking office. The political question is whether this will rebound or not.

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

METHODOLOGY:
200 live telephone interviews of likely 2014 Eugene General Election voters were conducted each of January 23-24 and June 10-11, 2013. The margin of error at the sample median is 7 percent.

Following standard methodology, the excellent and good are grouped as approve and fair and poor are grouped as disapprove.

Eugeneans generally preferred revenue cuts

QUESTION:
As you may know, the City of Eugene has a $6 million dollar shortfall. Should Eugene increase revenues or cut expenditures?

METHODOLOGY:
200 live telephone interviews of likely 2014 Eugene General Election voters were conducted each of January 23-24 and June 10-11, 2013. The margin of error at the sample median is 7 percent.

The countywide polling tracked eight county leaders during the jail levy campaign:
1. Sheriff Turner and District Attorney Gardner who both trended up.
2. Liane Richardson who trended down.
3. All five county commissioners: four stayed level and had no trend. Bozievich trended downward. His initial rating was also well below the other four commissioners.

The links to the posted favorability data are:
Tom Turner: http://lindholmcompanyblog.com/?p=8915
Liane Richardson:http://lindholmcompanyblog.com/?p=8911
Jay Bozievich: http://lindholmcompanyblog.com/?p=8913
County Commissioner average: http://lindholmcompanyblog.com/?p=8910

This post compares the Bozievich and Richardson ratings from the previous posts with the average net favorability rating for the county commissioners during this time.

Overall, the county commissioners showed little change. This implies the voters’ ire was focused on Bozievich and Richardson.

Part of the little change is the averaging process. Several of the commissioners went up or down. None showed a pattern.

For Tom Turner’s favorability during the campaign see: http://lindholmcompanyblog.com/?p=8915

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 ______?
Pat Farr
Sid Leiken
Peter Sorenson
Faye Stewart
Jay Bozievich
Liane Richardson

METHODOLOGY:
200 live telephone interviews were conducted of likely May 2013 Lane County Special Election voters on each of March 18-19, April 22-23, and May 6-7, 2013. The margin of error at the sample median was 7 percent.

The net favorability is the total favorability minus the total unfavorability.

Commissioner Jay Bozievich’s favorability dropped during the jail levy campaign. He went from a positive sevent to a net zero rating. Essentially, the positives stayed constant and the negatives increased.

This trend provides some explanation why the jail levy went up and down. As a reminder, here is the trend:http://lindholmcompanyblog.com/?p=9053

The shifts in the trend were clearly correlated with the PR snafus at the county.

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 Jay Bozievich? IF FAVORABLE OR UNFAVORABLE: Is that strongly or somewhat?

METHODOLOGY:
200 live telephone interviews were conducted of likely May 2013 Lane County Special Election voters on each of March 18-19, April 22-23, and May 6-7, 2013. The margin of error at the sample median was 7 percent.

County Administrator Liane Richardson’s personal net favorability started positive, but declined over time. There was a net drop of nine points.

This trend provides some explanation why the jail levy went up and down. As a reminder, here is the trend:http://lindholmcompanyblog.com/?p=9053

The shifts in the trend were clearly correlated with the PR snafus at the county.

It is rare for an administrator to have a net negative rating. Usually their Name ID, such as that of Mike Gleason when he was Eugene City Manager in the 1990s, is very low to begin with.

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 Liane Richardson? IF FAVORABLE OR UNFAVORABLE: Is that strongly or somewhat?

METHODOLOGY:
200 live telephone interviews were conducted of likely May 2013 Lane County Special Election voters on each of March 18-19, April 22-23, and May 6-7, 2013. The margin of error at the sample median was 7 percent.

As a recap of the job performance rating trends: None of the major components of county government was given a good initial job performance rating. None of the ratings got much better during the campaign. There was a reasonably close correlation. None of them diverged extraordinarily from the others.

Here are the links to the relevant ratings:

County Government: http://lindholmcompanyblog.com/?p=8917
Board of County Commissioners: http://lindholmcompanyblog.com/?p=8929
County Administrator: http://lindholmcompanyblog.com/?p=8932

County Administrator Liane Richardson’s job performance rating was low at the beginning of the campaign and dropped significantly during it. This was probably due to the salary and Metro snafus.

QUESTION:
How would you rate the job Lane County Administrator Liane Richardson is doing: excellent, good, fair, poor?

METHODOLOGY:
200 live telephone interviews were conducted of likely May 2013 Lane County Special Election voters on each of March 18-19, April 22-23, and May 6-7, 2013. The margin of error at the sample median was 7 percent.

Excellent and good responses were grouped as “Approve” and fair and poor responses were grouped as “Disapprove.” This is a common methodology.

The commissioner rating was very bad and it got worse during the campaign. The disapproval rating increased significantly. In the end, the net favorability was a minus 64 percent.

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

METHODOLOGY:
200 live telephone interviews were conducted of likely May 2013 Lane County Special Election voters on each of March 18-19, April 22-23, and May 6-7, 2013. The margin of error at the sample median was 7 percent.

Excellent and good responses were grouped as “Approve” and fair and poor responses were grouped as “Disapprove.” This is a common methodology.