Voters still undecided in St. Petersburg mayoral race

ST. PETERSBURG -- After months of public forums, campaign mailers and newspaper articles, St. Petersburg voters still have no clue about who the next mayor should be, a new St. Petersburg Times poll shows.

Sixty-one percent of voters do not know who they would support if the 2009 mayoral election were held today, according to the poll. 

Former City Council member Kathleen Ford received the most support of the 10 candidates, with 10 percent.

The Times surveyed 600 registered city voters June 11-16. The poll has a 4 percentage point margin of error.

After Ford, Bill Foster and Deveron Gibbons each received 8 percent, followed by Larry Williams and Scott Wagman with 4 percent each. City Council member Jamie Bennett received 3 percent of the vote. Newcomer Richard Eldridge received 1 percent.

The results indicate that the candidates have had little success mobilizing voters. A Times poll about the race in December 2007 found that 65 percent of the respondents were undecided.

Cristina Silva, Times staff writer

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Comments

[saintpetersblog]

So Zen, etc., do you now believe me about my source inside the Times. I told you Wagman was fifth behind Williams!

I am also completely right, this is the worst election ever. These campaigns and their handlers b l o w. Hundreds of thousands of dollars at their disposal and the more voters are undecided now than there were in December.

Can Ken Welch please man up and get in this race. Hell, Karl, you can run. Kriseman, someone.

Heck, I could pull three percent of the vote.

[Get ready to be proven just how ignorant you all are]

I told you Kathleen just may be the sleeper here.

In the end it will be Foster v Ford in the General... Foster takes a close one.

[Not a usual blogger]

I know Ken Welch, Karl Nurse, and Rick Kriseman each a little bit through neighborhood activities. All three have been good to me, my neighborhood, and all three seem above this election, honestly. Ken, in particular is a statesman. Karl is a hardworking public servant and Richard is a good mix of progressive and professionalism. I would like one of them to run, but not sure they should subject themselves.

[Zen Master]

This seems odd. You are right you could get 3%.

With all numbers so low 5th means nothing. 6 people= 1%. So it seems the margin of error is high.

Though I am suprised Ford got 60 people to say they will vote for her.

[Ford is the stand-out candidate]

Anyone who meets Ford and listens to her for 10 seconds can plainly see she is the stand-out candidate in this race.

Call for Kriseman, Welch or whomever you wish. For what ever reason, they have chosen not to run.

Kathleen Ford has not only made the choice to run-she did it in spite of what might be said about her, knowing the job ahead is tougher than any mayoral term in the past 100 years.

Kathleen Ford has what it takes to lead St. Petersburg into the future.

It will be a tough job. RE-Segregated schools, community policing at an all time low, business not exactly booming and the daunting task of bringing the city's luster back without stepping back in time with regard to race relations.

We need a smart, tenacious leader who is willing to step up to the plate, shoulder the responsibility and do what it takes-not only to win an election, but to rebuild a city teetering on the edge.

Kathleen Ford can do that. She can bring St. Petersburg back from the edge.

Go Kathleen! And, congratulations. You have shown that you are working hard at this and you have what it takes to focus on the task at hand. ...now work harder!

[saintpetersblog]

This poll should be a shot across the bow to all of the candidates. They all think they can coast in without a massive media buy. This also deflates any talk of Wagman being a front-runner. He's barely a factor.

[em]

This poll means about as much to me as Peter's diatribes do. It's irrelevant this early.

[Ignorance]

Peter and Cristina-

This is how elections go. Campaigns don't motivate people. No candidate is going to make anyone care about a low turn-out election 2 months before the election. The people will care more when they feel it gets closer. Here is an example; when do you write your term paper? When the teacher gives it out 6 weeks before it's due or 3 days before it is due? Given this FACT of how people choose to engage in temporal events it should be no suprise that there is such a large block of undecideds (ITS TYPICAL).

Peter-

For the love of God quit with this me, me, me I'm so smart I know everything routine. We get it you "run" a blog. You worked on campaigns. You're self-agrandizing and inflated campaign background is really tiring. You had you're shots.

[saintpetersblog]

Ignorance - I won't quit anything. So just talk about this issues.

As for EM and Ignorance, to say that it's too early shows how Ignorant you are. A mjaority of the ballots will be out in three weeks. This is the same time as October 15 if the election were in November.

These campaigns should have their entire thing rolled out by now. Has Deveron put forth one serious policy proposal? Has there been one tv spot, one major announcement by any of these clowns.

The Big 3 sitting on the sidelines should have their own pollster track where they are at and jump in. Welch, Kriseman, Brett, Nurse, Rouson, all five would be better.

[Bankers for Peter]

...Please take Peter's advice about media buys and campaign funds. He's AWESOME with money.

[stupid]

This is a pointless poll. 60% undecided? Yawn. polls mean nothing anyway. Who did they poll? What section of town? Where did the majority of voters come from? Were they evenly dispersed across the city? If not were they slanted as it pertained to historical voter turn out per district? If so, does it take into account the change that might occur with new voters feeling empowered?

Polls and yard signs....it is like pre season practice without pads, in football. It doesn't mean much, but it doesn't stop the pundits from predicting who will win the superbowl.

['sayin]

Welch doesn’t have the stones to face a real challenge to his self-proclaimed political acumen.

Nurse is a clueless appointed lackey who’ll be lucky to retain he seat he kissed so many butts to get.

Kriseman is just another ineffective Mel minion who couldn’t run water, let alone a city.

Lil’ Pete’s just a self-promoting and clueless wannabe

[Running is running]

If your candidate can't run without pads, what makes you think he will be first out of the gate when we suit up?

The burden just gets heavier. If a candidate can't carry their own weight now,there's no hope of carrying the vote or the weight of the city's challenges later.

[~]

I ran "without pads" once... but when I fell, I really scraped my knees and could no longer go to Stonewall parties!

[bob]

Bill Foster will win!

[Hater Blocker]

sayin only has the stones to blog anonomously, and not much else. What a wuss. Make a contribution or put a sock in it.

[stupid]

Running is running-

No one said he couldn't run? I am merely stating that you can not predict who will win the superbowl by who won a preseason game. Here endith the metaphors.

I remember tons of polls being smoked by Gibbons supporters though :)

I just threw that in there because most of them are homophobes. Or at least one on this blog site who keeps posting over and over and over and over again to create the illusion that he is supported in his views.

Seriously though, polls mean very little. And I will reiterate:

Who did they poll? What section of town? Where did the majority of voters come from? Were they evenly dispersed across the city? If not were they slanted as it pertained to historical voter turn out per district? If so, does it take into account the change that might occur with new voters feeling empowered?

[saintpetersblog]

Stupid,

I think the Times uses Shroth (sp.?) and Im sure they did a wide enough sampling to get the results.

Pre-season, pads, whatever...this poll shows that this election b l o w s. Wags has dropped a hundred large and he's got three percent??? Bennett, Gibbons, Wags havbe been running forever and they can't crack 10 percent? What a joke! Worst Election Ever.

[Mary]

My vote is for Kathleen Ford! Any of those other idiots that have been working with Rick Baker can go! I'm tired of the "behind closed doors" politics.

[stupid]

They did not quote it as a Schroth poll...just a TImes poll. Makes me think someone at the Times just picked up a phone and asked questions :) But 60% undecided shows a certain bit of apathy. I am unsure whether that should reflect the campaigns at this point...few outside of die hard political circles are going to think of voting anything but the day polls open up.

[seriously?]

Thanks, 'sayin for your contribution of silly name calling. I'm sorry that growing up into adulthood has been so difficult for you. I'm very sorry you are attracted to politics. Oh well, what's another worm in the body politic?

These polls do show that the mayor's race is wide open at a pivotal point before mail ballots go out. Advantage goes to Gibbons and Wagman who are the only ones who have the hideous amounts of money to make a difference in getting their message out. Unless Ford or Foster start robbing 7-11s to fill the coffers.

[To Saintpetersblog]

And Ford has been running for 9 years and can't get higher than 10%. That is SAD. She should - after 9 years - be at 30% plus JUST FORM HER PAST ATTEMPTS.

I am surprised that Wagman is so far behind to be honest - that will upset him and his camp (many who post here all day). He thought he was winning.

Foster should be higher also - as a council member.

I think the "winner" here is Gibbons. He is a new face (Jan 09) and black. Momentum is everything. Media buys will be key in this race though. It is ALL about marketing this time.

[Lies, D***ned Lies, and Statistics]

A margin of error of 4% actually means 4% on either side of the mean. So, any of these numbers could be off by as much as 8%. It is conceivable that Ford only has 2% of the voters. Since 60% of the respondents are women, which I consider to be evidence of faulty sampling, even before we get to “stupid’s” questions, she may have no lead at all. Also, having 61% undecided means only that, more than two months out from the primary, people have not begun to worry about these races.
So, the poll is essentially meaningless.
We have Stpetersblog making his usual extravagant claims, but he should be checking his old college statistics text, if he has one, before misleading his readers. We should remember that though he is able to run his sticky fingers over a keyboard, and was involved in some local campaigns, his assumptions and presumptions are merely wishful thinking. Perhaps he would be better off signing up the Congemi campaign.

[Stpete Resident]

Scott Wagman is the best person suited for the position. He is well balanced and eager for the challenge. He will 'change things up' for our great city.

[Yip!]

My guess is that ‘sayin just nailed it on the head. Seems to have riled a few pinheaded staffers to blog pimp in their boss’s defense, with the standard “if you disagree with me, you’re a hater” rhetoric.

I agree with ‘sayin; neither Welch, Nurse, or Kriseman are any better than the gaggle of goofballs we have running now.