More and more, a common strategy for getting one's way in this town is to threaten to pack up and ship out. A number of anonymous poster have threatened to move out of Fort Wayne if Harrison Square fell through. One person posting under the name "Ron Paul" threatened to leave if Libertarians ever ran this city.
See, I wish I could get that in writing. However, I have not found one blogger or comment poster who threatened to leave while using their legal name. This gives me high hopes that if I get elected then there will be fewer anonymous bloggers in this town.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Friday, July 06, 2007
I received a telephone call from a pollster
I'm usually happy to participate in polls. When the poll taker asked if I planned on voting, I did tell her that I was running for office. She then went on to ask about my positions on several local issues, including HS and the smoking ban, followed by some questions regarding who I was planning to support for mayor. (probably Kelty, but some Libertarians will be voting for Henry)
She asked a question regarding what I thought of Kelty keeping mum on who paid for a poll, so I responded by asking her who was paying for the poll that she was conducting. She said she didn't know. That is probably true. The results are less likely to be skewed if it is a double-blind survey.
At the end of the survey, I was asked if I leaned Republican, Democrat, or independent. I mentioned that I was a Libertarian running for city council, and asked if "Other" was an option. She said no, sounded somewhat suprised, and said that concluded the survey. Now, I realize there is a limit to the number of possible political labels they can include in a survey, but just because one is not a Democrat or Republican does not make one an Independent. Polls should always at least include "Other" as an option.
I don't know if my results are going to be thrown out or not. Pollsters often throw out results if there is reason to think that a respondent was giving random answers, but what if the respondent has a stake in the outcome of the poll? Next time I'll tell the polltaker upfront who I am.
Then again, with 27 people running for city council this year, city council candidates sort of constitute their own demographic group.
She asked a question regarding what I thought of Kelty keeping mum on who paid for a poll, so I responded by asking her who was paying for the poll that she was conducting. She said she didn't know. That is probably true. The results are less likely to be skewed if it is a double-blind survey.
At the end of the survey, I was asked if I leaned Republican, Democrat, or independent. I mentioned that I was a Libertarian running for city council, and asked if "Other" was an option. She said no, sounded somewhat suprised, and said that concluded the survey. Now, I realize there is a limit to the number of possible political labels they can include in a survey, but just because one is not a Democrat or Republican does not make one an Independent. Polls should always at least include "Other" as an option.
I don't know if my results are going to be thrown out or not. Pollsters often throw out results if there is reason to think that a respondent was giving random answers, but what if the respondent has a stake in the outcome of the poll? Next time I'll tell the polltaker upfront who I am.
Then again, with 27 people running for city council this year, city council candidates sort of constitute their own demographic group.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)