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SLC Registered Voters Like Their City
Salt Lake City residents have a more positive image of their city than their state. Some 64% say the city is going in the right direction, compared with 59% who say the state is going in the right direction, according to an independent poll conducted by Dan Jones & Associates March 24-29. Only 24% say the city is off on the wrong track, with 27% saying Utah is on the wrong track.
The poll of 506 city residents who are registered voters shows 47% think the image of Salt Lake City throughout the U.S. has improved over the last five years; 18% said it is viewed more negatively. In the last several weeks, the city has enjoyed a great deal of positive publicity with the launch of Downtown Rising and much discussion about the numerous major retail and housing developments planned for downtown.
Respondents were asked the list the most pressing issue facing the city that the mayor should address. Education/schools, transportation and downtown development were the top issues, each being mentioned by 9% of the respondents. Next were crime/gangs and growth, each with 5%.
Mayor Rocky Anderson enjoys a positive job approval rating among registered city voters, with 57% approval; however, County Mayor Peter Corroon won a 77% approval rating. Some 42% of respondents somewhat or strongly disapprove of Anderson’s performance, compared to only an 8% negative rating for Corroon.
Some 82% of respondents said they approved of the downtown development project undertaken by the LDS Church.
Podcast Watch
Holbrook Drops Out
In an interview with Utah Dialogue's Ben McAdams and Charlie Luke, Meg Holbrook announces that she's withdrawing from the SLC mayoral race to serve as a member of the Utah Transportation Commission. Listen online to Holbrook’s comments about working with state, legislative, congressional, and community leaders to find solutions to existing and future transportation challenges.
Media Watch
Climbing on Board the Titanic?
Business tycoon Sam Zell buys the Tribune media empire, which includes the Chicago Tribune and the L.A. Times. Wall Street Journal op-ed columnist Joseph Epstein wonders if wealthy business moguls who are buying newspapers know something about the declining newspaper business that the rest of us don’t.
New Media Watch
Mind Your Manners
One of the downsides of the blogging phenomenon is the ill-mannered nature of many blog postings and comments by readers. Comments on many popular political blogs quickly degenerate into name-calling and irrelevant remarks. The New York Times reports on an effort to bring some much-needed manners and civility to blogging and to comments posted by blog readers.
National Politics
Best Stories From . . .
-- New York Post: Hundreds of New Yorkers are bankrolling Sen. Barack Obama's '08 "presidential bid -- including many longtime boosters of arch rival Hillary Rodham Clinton. In fact, Obama's biggest campaign bundlers in the Big Apple -- credited with rounding up Democratic ducats in mammoth chunks -- are former big-time Clinton backers who have shifted their allegiance from the hometown senator to the soaring newcomer."
-- Los Angeles Times: The GOP presidential candidates each face a litmus test on tax and fiscal policy -- a test Sen. John McCain may have already failed by voting against Pres. Bush's tax cuts in 2001 and 2003.
-- Rocky Mountain News: Editorial notes that "[i]n March, the U.S. economy added 180,000 jobs; the unemployment rate declined again, to 4.4 percent; and average hourly and weekly earnings advanced, with weekly income up 4.4 percent on an annual basis. In other words, amid all of the economic anxiety fueled by globalization, immigration and the relentless rhetoric about a growing class divide in the United States, the actual performance of the American economy remains fairly remarkable" (see related Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial for an opposing view).
-- USA Today: According to new poll, Pres. Bush's job-approval rating is "38%. His standing has stayed below 40% for seven consecutive months. Since the advent of modern polling, only two presidents have suffered longer strings of such low ratings. One was Harry Truman, whose popularity sank during the final 26 months of his tenure as the Korean War stalemated. The other was Richard Nixon during the 13 months leading up to his resignation amid the Watergate scandal."
Today in Political History
April 10, 1996: Ex-Congressman Dan Rostenkowski accepts a plea bargain deal, pleads guilty to reduced charges, and receives a 17 month sentence and a fine of $100,000. (Source: perspicuity)
April 10, 2003: The U.S. House passes a national Amber Alert law that creates a system for identifying and tracking abducted children. (Source: NBC5)
Wise Words
“If it's very painful for you to criticize your friends - you're safe in doing it. But if you take the slightest pleasure in it, that's the time to hold your tongue.”
-- Alice Duer Miller (Source: quotesexchange)
Communications Tip
A Dozen Press Relations Secrets
By Chuck Muth
(See Campaign Hot Tips for all 12 secrets)
1.) If you avoid the press, they’ll avoid you…or worse, roast you like a marshmallow. Don’t duck the press. Learn to work with them. They’ll never be your “friend”…but if you treat them professionally, many will be friendly.
2.) It’s OK to take them to breakfast or lunch. Get to know them…and let them get to know you in a setting other than a press conference.
3.) There’s no such thing as “off the record.” If you don’t ever want to see it in print…don’t say it.
4.) Be accessible. Reporters are on deadlines. If you cannot be reached in a timely manner, they’ll just find someone else to quote. Return reporters’ phone calls promptly.
Blog Watch
-- Micah Bruner says of the apparently successful voucher referendum campaign: "The referendum retains power in the hands of the people of this country. That is where it originates and that is where it should remain. Once the process is initiated, however, we take upon ourselves the responsibility of carefully reviewing and researching the question before us. The legislators who voted on it initially certainly put in the time and effort to understand this voucher system. We owe it to ourselves to do the same. ... [I]f we have a referendum on the balance, let's do what the process was intended to do. If we don't trust the legislature with this vote, we shouldn't trust the NEA, UEA, or any of the pro-voucher interest groups with the task of doing the studying and research of this issue" (see also The Senate Site, Jeremy's Jeremiad, The Utah Amicus, and KVNU's For The People).
-- Utah Taxpayer says "there has to be a better way to fund transportation" than through continued sales tax increases (see also Davis County Watch).
-- WaPo's Chris Cillizza takes a look at Mitt Romney's "Inner Circle" -- "the men and women charged with introducing Romney to a national audience" -- which includes Utah native and political wunderkind Spencer Zwick (for more on Romney, see Captain's Quarters and Hugh Hewitt).
Lighter Side
Yesterday’s 5th Wave cartoon in the Washington Post. |
