EVANSVILLE REDEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETING

The Evansville Redevelopment Commission will hold a Special Meeting on Friday August 24, 2012 at 8:00 a.m. in Room 307 of the Civic Center Complex, 1 NW Martin Luther King Jr, Blvd, Evansville, Indiana.

City Seeks Proposals from Three Hotel Developers

EVANSVILLE, IN – The Evansville Redevelopment Commission voted today to request formal proposals from three developers who have shown interest in constructing a new convention hotel in Downtown Evansville. The companies invited to submit formal proposals are Gatehouse Capital Corp., based in Dallas, TX; HWC, LLC, of Branson, MO; and Swerdling & Associates in Denver.
“I support the Redevelopment Commission’s action to move this project forward by asking three companies with a history of developing quality hotels to submit formal plans for new convention hotel for the City of Evansville,” said Mayor Lloyd Winnecke. “All of the companies responding to our initial request for qualifications are well qualified to handle this project, but the portfolio of projects of the three finalists matches best to our needs.”

Earlier this month, the Evansville Redevelopment Commission received qualifications from five companies interested in the hotel project. The other two companies were Acquest Realty Advisors, Inc., of Bloomfield Hills, MI; and Corporex Realty & Investment, LLC, of Covington, KY.

The Commission reviewed all of the qualification statements, including the companies’ recent experience with hotel development. Staff with the Evansville Department of Metropolitan Development,

Evansville Redevelopment Commission President Ed Hafer and Hunden Strategic Partners conducted phone interviews with all five developers.

“The three developers selected by the Redevelopment Commission bring more than $2 billion in current or recent hotel development experience to the table,” said Philip Hooper, Executive Director of the Evansville Department of Metropolitan Development. Hooper said the developments are in cities that include Indianapolis, Baltimore, Austin, TX, Jacksonville, FL, Hollywood, CA, and near San Francisco in Silicon Valley.

The next step is for developers to submit formal proposals to the Commission by October 1, with interviews to follow in October. The Commission plans to select a hotel development team at its November 6 meeting.

Presidential and Senate Poll for the General Election

Foster McCollum White Baydoun (FMW)B, a national public opinion polling and voter analytics consulting firm based in Michigan and representing the combined resources of Foster McCollum White & Associates (Troy, Michigan) and Baydoun Consulting (Dearborn, Michigan) conducted a telephone-automated polling random survey of Michigan registered and most likely November 2012 general election voters to determine their voting preferences.

In what will be a significant blow to Democratic campaign efforts, native son Mitt Romney has climbed into the lead in Michigan’s Presidential contest. The naming of Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan has delivered a targeted affect on the Michigan and Midwest campaign dynamics. We ballot tested the Presidential candidates and we also tested the following two areas of initial campaign impact and awareness:

Congressman Ryan’s impact on voters’ decision to vote for Mitt Romney.

Congressman Ryan’s controversial 2012 fiscal budget plan and voters support or opposition to the plan.

It is our conclusion that the results to these questions will help initially either validate Ryan’s selection or provide messaging for Democrats that Ryan is not acceptable to the voters. As our data outlines, currently Romney and Ryan are received positively enough to help vault Romney into the lead. Our aggregate findings for this section are as follows:

State-wide Aggregate Results (Weighted to projected age, gender & ethnicity of electorate, percentages do not all equal 100%) – 1733 Respondents MOE +/- 2.35%

Question 1:

The 2012 United States Presidential election will be held on November 6, 2012. Who are you more likely to vote for in the election??

(Barack Obama): 43.88%

(Mitt Romney): 47.68%

(Another candidate): 3.96%

(Undecided): 4.01%

Question #2:

Republican nominee Mitt Romney has selected Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan as his vice presidential nominee. Does the selection of Paul Ryan make you more or less likely to vote for Mitt Romney in the United States Presidential election?

(Paul Ryan makes you more likely to vote for Mitt Romney): 36.11%

(Paul Ryan makes you less likely to vote for Mitt Romney): 27.90%

(If the pick makes no difference in your choice): 36.85%

Question #3:

Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan has been selected as the Republican vice presidential nominee. Congressman Ryan has proposed federal budgets that drastically cut the federal deficit, cuts taxes on job creators and proposes the reform of Medicare and Social Security benefits. The Tea Party and business groups support Ryan’s budget as fiscally responsible, reducing the size and cost of unsustainable programs. Democrats, senior citizens groups and a number of economists oppose Ryan’s budget proposal citing it gives the richest Americans a tax cut, privatizes Social Security and Medicare and will have a negative effect on the economy. Do you support Congressman Ryan’s budget plan for the federal government?

(For strongly support): 34.77%

(For somewhat support): 13.22%

Total Support 47.99%

(For strongly oppose): 41.59%

(For somewhat oppose): 3.42%

Total Oppose 45.01%

(For undecided): 8.52%

“Romney has identified a clear game changer if his strategy is to divide the Midwest and blow a bugle in President Obama’s Midwestern Strategy”, states Eric Foster, chief pollster and President of Foster McCollum White & Associates. “Romney may be attempting to isolate Illinois and Pennsylvania by having Michigan and Wisconsin in play. That also limited Obama’s opportunity to strengthen resource and advertising in Ohio and Indiana if Michigan and Wisconsin are competitive”.

In spite of national criticism of the Ryan selection and budget plan, our findings suggest that Michigan voters are viewing both as positives for Romney. 36.11% of Michigan voters are more likely to vote for Romney because of the Paul Ryan selection while only 27.90% are less likely to vote for Romney. That is a positive statistical advantage for Romney of 8.21 points or 29.42%. Tarek Baydoun, statistical analyst for Foster McCollum White Baydoun reflects, “While Romney may have challenges connecting to voters, Paul Ryan seems to humanize him and make him more acceptable to voters like his wife Ann Romney does.”

Additionally the Ryan Budget plan is supported by a plurality of Michigan voters. 47.99% support Ryan’s budget which includes a major overhaul of Medicare and Social Security while 45.01% oppose the plan. What is statistically interesting is the fact that 41.59% of Michigan voters strongly oppose the plan and only 34.77% strongly support the plan. The margin for Ryan’s plan comes from the soft supporters, who outnumber the soft opponents by a four to one margin (13.22% to 3.42%).

“The past week for President Obama was not helpful to his numbers,” per Eric Foster, chief pollster for Foster McCollum White Baydoun. “The campaign is very fluid, as we identified in June, the President’s campaign needs to shift its focus towards presenting more of a business case narrative of why voters should re-elect President Obama while better defining why Romney/Ryan is not good for America.”

“The data prompts further study by the Obama team, Democratic Party and related supporters into the declining support for the President in what was a safe state for him,” stated Attorney Tarek Baydoun, statistical analyst for Foster McCollum White Baydoun. “In a state with a significant senior citizen voting population, the overall support for Congressman Ryan’s budget plan must be very troubling for the President and his team.”

Additionally, the polling data suggests a dip in interest among voters in Democratic leaning regions (Southeastern Michigan, the Thumb Region and Major 17 County Cluster) Congressional Districts (5th, 13th and 14th) and Minority voters. This dip in interest would not only hurt President Obama, but also Democratic down ballot candidates and ballot initiatives. President Obama and Democrats must get the interest and excitement levels up in their voting regions to counter balance Romney/Ryan, states Eric Foster, chief pollster for Foster McCollum White Baydoun. “If Mitt Romney is able to excite Republican regions of the state with Paul Ryan and increase their share of turnout to 2010 proportions, Democrats will have a difficult night across the state”.

The Rasmussen Tracking poll today shows Mitt Romney with a 45% – 44% lead over President Obama Romney while Gallup’s Tracking poll shows Romney maintaining a lead of 47% – 45%.

The average of these two polls is now showing the Romney/Ryan campaign with 46.0% and the Obama/Biden at 44.5% both garnering slightly less support than last week.

The average approval rate for President Obama is now at negative 2% meaning that 2% more of those polled disapprove than approve of the Presidents job performance. The average approval rating for the President was 47.0% and the average disapproval was 49%.

In an examination of all polls published after August 13th and applying them to the elector count, if the election were held today and the most recent polls are accurate Romney would win the presidency over Obama by an electoral vote of 282 – 256

The PPP poll which is run by democrats reported today that Romney leads President Obama in Wisconsin by 48% – 47% agreeing exactly with the most recent Rasmussen poll in Wisconsin. The PPP poll in July showed President Obama with a 6% lead.

SUBSTANCE ABUSE COUNCIL OF VANDERBURGH COUNTY PRESENTS
THE ICE THAT BURNS, A COMMUNITY STRATEGY ON COMBATING METHAMPHETAMINE

Evansville, IN – Monday, August 20, 2012 On behalf of the Substance Abuse Council of Vanderburgh County we would like to invite community members to attend “The Ice that Burns” A Community Strategy on Combating Methamphetamine. The seminar will take place on Friday, September 7, 2012 from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. at the Holiday Inn on North Highway 41. Admission is $25, registration and the continental breakfast will begin at 8:30 a.m.

Terry Stinson, MS, CPS, ICPS, prevention specialist with the RiverValley Behavioral Health Regional Prevention Center and Gary Hall, M.Ed., CPS, ICPS, senior director with the RiverValley Behavioral Health Regional Prevention Center will be presenting “The Ice That Burns”. The seminar is community based training developed by the RiverVally Behavioral Health Regional Prevention Center to help equip all that attend to use the best strategies for reducing methamphetamine related problems in our community.

Seating is limited; please register by Friday, August 31. For more information or to register, please contact Laura Hatfield with The Substance Abuse Council of Vanderburgh County at 812.422.0626.