The Poll Results Are In on Local Government Character

McGinn and Adams Dominate with Bredhold a Solid 3rd

During late July the City-County Observer conducted a non-scientific online poll asking the following question:

“Which of the following three City of Evansville elected officials do you consider to be the most transparent, trustworthy, credible and dedicated?”

All of the members of the City Council along with Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel and Alberta Matlock were listed on the survey. The respondents of the survey come from the more than 1,000 unique visitors to the City-County Observer’s website during the week that ended on July 30, 2010. A total of 168 unique users casted a total of 287 votes for an average of 1.7 votes per user. It is obvious that some of the voters chose not to utilize their three votes as the total available to be casted was 504 votes. The tabulation of votes in order of finish is as follows:

Dan McGinn: 91 votes
Dr. Dan Adams: 73 votes
Wendy Bredhold: 24 votes
Curt John: 20 votes
Alberta Matlock: 14 votes
Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel: 13 votes
Missy Mosby: 12 votes
Don Walker: 12 votes
John Friend: 12 votes
Connie Robinson: 11 votes
B. J. Watts: 5 votes

As spotting trends in polls is filled with nuance the City-County Observer will not be assigning any particular policy conclusions to the results of this poll. We do not consider this poll to be an indicator of our reader’s opinions on windmills, smoking, firehouse closures, or construction projects. What is clear from this poll is the trend of the big picture of our readers when it comes to the character of the elected officials of the City of Evansville.

It seems as though the slate of candidates that rode the coattails of Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel into office in his trouncing of republican candidate David Nixon in 2007 as members of Team Weinzapfel, are no longer getting much of a ride. The lone exception to the disappearing coattails of the Mayor is Dr. Dan Adams who was a solid second in the voting with 73 votes. The winner of the poll Dan McGinn is most certainly not a candidate that was backed by the Mayor. Membership on Team Weinzapfel garnered between a low of 5 votes to B. J. Watts to a high of 24 votes for Wendy Bredhold. Ms. Bredhold was appointed to her seat and has shown both a principled and independent streak with her votes.

The clear indication from this poll is that the more a candidate has broken rank with the positions of the Mayor, the higher number of votes they collected. It is clear that the voters in this poll equate principles, independent thought, and a willingness to vote outside of a controlled block to be an indicator of character. The next City of Evansville elections will be in 2011. The early indication is that character, honesty, and transparency will be at the top of peoples list when deciding who to vote for.

The City-County Observer is encouraged that the people of Evansville and in particular our readers are embracing character and honesty as the criteria for election to public office.