Mayor Peyton's approval rating slides to 27 percent

[Ocklawaha]

Slides to 27% ?? Hey, I wonder what y'all were smoking when you read that number. Are you SURE it said 27%, or was it that they found 27 people in the City that still like him? Oh I know, 27 people is a bit of a stretch, but he could be my friend, if he'd just allow us to present him with a streetcar alternative plan like he promised us... So maybe it's down to 26 now.

Ocklawaha

[vicupstate]

Thought this was a timely item to post:

Detroit mayor could face recall campaign

Detroit, 21 February 2008: Detroit's embattled mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has become the subject of a recall campaign following a row over an extra-marital affair. Detroit resident Douglas Johnson, a candidate for the 2009 city council elections, submitted the required papers to the Wayne County Clerk's office, citing six petitionable actions by the mayor, including abuse of public funds. A number of outstanding investigations and potential legal suits against the mayor, mostly connected to the affair and alleged cover ups, carry felony convictions ranging from removal of office to up to 15 years in jail.

Explaining his efforts, "He has damaged the city dramatically," Johnson said. "That is the only way the city will start to recover." The wording of the petition must first be approved by the clerk's office before Johnson, a paralegal, can collect the 57,000 signatures required to force an election within 180 days. In addition to the challenge mounted outside of the city hall, Kilpatrick also faces an ethics board probe after the city's conduct panel green-lighted an anonymous complaint against the mayor to proceed in March. While the panel has little powers in law beyond administering censure of the mayor, it can recommend his removal from office to the city council.

The city council itself is currently locked in a constitutional battle over the city charter and where authority over its law officers resides, owing to its demands for the release of potentially perjurious text messages between the mayor and his lover, former chief of staff Christine Beatty. The city council and the law department are at odds over a legal appeal by the city to the state supreme court. "Life keeps going on," the mayor said at a recent awards ceremony for youngsters, vowing "This will be over soon."

The Mayor's opponent's don't have a prayer though, literally, as GOD is on the mayor's side.

Detroit mayor insists God was on his side

Detroit, 10 February 2008: Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who last month came under strong pressure to resign over sexual relations with his chief of staff Christine Beatty, claimed in an radio interview that he was on assignment from God in his position as mayor. “Detroit is moving forward and I believe it is because of the team that has been assembled here and it is also because God is continuing to smile on us.”

The mayor continued to tell the radio interviewer that the person or the entity or God who put him there wanted him to quit. “I've never been a quitter and I'm not going to start now. So I'm not resigning,” Kilpatrick emphasised. However currently, a prosecutor is investigating whether the mayor and chief of staff lied under oath during a lawsuit last summer in which both denied having had a physical relationship. A conviction of lying under oath can bring up to 15 years’ imprisonment.

Asked whether he would contest the next mayoral elections, Mayor Kilpatrick said that in 2009 people would have an opportunity to make a decision. “But I will make a case at that point to why I am the best person for the job,” he said. He continued to tell his audience that at this particular point he had an intention of being mayor. “You know until God tells me to do something else.”/quote]

[thelakelander]

WOW!  I just had a converstation about the Detroit Mayor and ours last night with family from Detroit.  Kilpatrick's in danger of being recalled, but he at least bought their downtown back to life.

[Ocklawaha]

Perhaps therein lays the problem? It is a scientific impossibility to recall someone who is already certified as brain dead... Go figure.

Ocklawaha

[Driven1]

yeah...i saw that blurb about the Detroit mayor not too long ago...there was also a (brief) effort to recall the mayor of Kansas City...and several others when i googled "recall mayor" the other day...

well, at least we don't have the only incompetent mayor in the U.S.

[Driven1]

interesting...rumor has it that about 2 weeks ago - not long after the poll came out - many COJ employees were forwarding this around story around and supervisors were told to crack down on it and that the study was not "scientific" and that Peyton's team is now in the process of coming up with their own numbers.

[Lunican]

It will be interesting to see what kind of numbers they come up with. I wonder if they will release the results if they turn out to be even worse?

Of course they can always just do some push polling and get those approvals up to the mid 90's.

[Midway ®]

Suggested form for question:

What word would you use to describe all of the positive improvements that Mayor Peyton has made during his terms in office, and do you approve of him and those improvements, and if you had the opportunity, would you vote for him again so he could improve Jacksonville even more?

[Lunican]

Half think Jacksonville is on wrong track

By Mary Kelli Palka,
The Times-Union

Half of Jacksonville's likely voters feel that things have gotten off on the wrong track in the city and less than half approve of how Mayor John Peyton and the City Council are handling their jobs, according to a poll made public Tuesday.

A group of business leaders commissioned the poll in June as Peyton's anti-crime initiative, Jacksonville Journey, was getting ready to wrap up. Peyton and his staff were advised of the poll results in mid-June but never took a copy of them, which meant they weren't released to the public.

But Peyton referenced the poll results when talking last week to members of the Duval County School Board, some of whom had concerns that politics played a role in Peyton choosing not to fund some education initiatives that were recommended as part of the Journey.

The Times-Union received a copy of results Tuesday night from public relations executive Michael Munz, who served on the Journey funding committee. He said he would send copies of the poll to city leaders. He wouldn't name the other business leaders who asked for the poll.

The telephone poll was taken June 3-5 of 600 registered likely voters. The error margin was 4.1 percentage points. It was conducted by The Tarrance Group and directed by well-known pollster Dave Sackett.

Munz said business leaders wanted the poll to better understand what the public was thinking about the crime issue.

About 94 percent of respondents were concerned about the crime in Jacksonville. Of those, 62 percent thought it was an urgent crisis or serious problem.

While 65 percent of the respondents said they approve of the way Sheriff John Rutherford is doing his job, only 48 percent approved of Peyton's job performance and 35 percent approved of the council's performance.

Only 33 percent believed that things in Jacksonville were going in the right direction, while 50 percent thought things were going in the wrong direction.

The results are lower for all of the politicians than in a December 2006 poll, when 71 percent of likely voters said they approved of Peyton's and Rutherford's job performance, and 54 percent approved of the job the council was doing.

"My takeaway from the poll was this city is really concerned about crime," Peyton said.

But he said he doesn't govern by polls and he wouldn't speculate about why people were less happy with his job performance now than a couple years ago.

Almost half of respondents said they would be willing to pay higher taxes if they knew the money would go for police officers and intervention programs. The Journey's funding committee recommended a tax increase, but Peyton decided this month not to raise taxes and instead cut some city services to fund more police officers and anti-crime programs.

Times-Union writer Topher Sanders contributed to this report.

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/072308/met_308137918.shtml

[RiversideGator]

Well, if crime alone caused the low crime numbers, then why is the Sheriff rated higher than Peyton?  He is delusional.  People are dissatisfied with him because he is incompetent and has produced NO major accomplishments during his tenure as Mayor. 

Mayor Peyton:  Please do us all a favor and resign and move to St. Johns County.

[Steve]

Folio talked about Peyton's lame duck status.  Maybe they were right.

how we have fallen so far since the days of Delaney

[vicupstate]

Mayor Peyton:  Please do us all a favor and resign and move to St. Johns County.

Did he ever leave St. John's County? 

[tufsu1]

Well, if crime alone caused the low crime numbers, then why is the Sheriff rated higher than Peyton?  He is delusional.  People are dissatisfied with him because he is incompetent and has produced NO major accomplishments during his tenure as Mayor. 

Mayor Peyton:  Please do us all a favor and resign and move to St. Johns County.

Mayor Peyton's approval ratings are still almost double those of George W.

[RiversideGator]

And?

[Lunican]

But he said he doesn't govern by polls and he wouldn't speculate about why people were less happy with his job performance now than a couple years ago.

This sounds just like Bush.