Survey of Alameda Voters Finds Bringing New Jobs to Alameda, City Spending, and Wasted Taxpayer Dollars as Top Election Issues

LOUISVILLE, Colo., Sept. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Magellan Data and Mapping Strategies today released survey results of 383 interviews with likely general election voters in the City of Alameda.  The survey has a margin of error of +/- 4.98% at the 95% confidence interval.  The survey was fielded on September 20th and 21st.  

To capture the full range of issue priorities, we asked voters an open-ended issue priority question. The top two open-ended issue priorities were: education/education funding and Alameda Point development.

Another section of the survey listed voter priority issues for respondents to choose from. The top three listed responses were: bringing new jobs to Alameda, city spending and wasting taxpayer dollars. These responses point to voter concerns around the management of taxpayer dollars, either through education funding or through frivolous spending of taxpayer dollars.

Survey results also revealed where the Alameda mayoral election stands. Alameda likely voters were asked about their current preference for Alameda mayor and were able to choose their preference from a list of all candidates. For mayor, the survey found Gilmore and DeHaan in position one and two, at 18% and 17% respectively.

Alameda Open Ended Issue Priority Responses

"In your own words, tell was issue or problem that you think is the top priority that that the Alameda City Council should be addressing the most."

Aggregating the open ended issue responses we find that that education, education funding and schools is the biggest priority among likely Alameda voters.  Voters feel that something needs to be done to address school closings, school funding and how it relates to the overall budget.  The development of Alameda Point is the second issue priority among all voters.  The verbatim responses reveal a frustration with the lack of progress regarding development of Alameda Point, going back 13 years since the base closed.  The third priority among voters is the management of the city budget, both long and short term.  Responses include references to the sustainability of pensions, city services and school funding.  The verbatim responses regarding education, the budget and Alameda Point are included in this release.

Alameda "Listed" Issue Priority Responses  

When asked to choose from a list of issue priorities, 34% of respondents ranked "bringing new jobs to Alameda" as the top issue the Alameda City Council should be addressing the most.  The second priority was "city spending" among 22% of voters, and the third most common response was "wasting taxpayer dollars" among 9% of voters.  

When aggregating the three top issue priorities, the survey finds an electorate that is concerned about job creation, city spending and mismanagement of funds at City Hall.  The following table shows the rank order of three issue responses among all voters.        

"Among the following list of issues, which do you think should be the top priority that the Alameda City Council should be addressing the most?" "And what would be the second most important issue?……And what would be the third most important issue?" (Once an issues was named it was removed from the following question)

City of Alameda Mayor Ballot Test

The Alameda race for Mayor is currently a statistical tie between City Councilmember Marie Gilmore and Vice Mayor Doug Dehaan with 18% and 17% respectively.  Councilmember Frank Matarrese is third with 10%, Tony Daysog is fourth with 8%, Kenneth Kahn has 2% of the vote and 42% are undecided.  The following shows the responses to the Alameda Mayor ballot test.

"If the election for Alameda Mayor was being held today, for whom would you vote if the candidates were Tony Daysog, Doug Dehaan, Marie Gilmore, Kenneth Kahn, or Frank Matarrese?"

Download Survey Toplines and Verbatim Responses

The survey topline results and the issue verbatim responses can be downloaded at www.MagellanStrategies.com.  This survey was paid for by a private client.  

Survey Methodology

The survey was conducted September 20th and 21st of 2010.  The sample for the survey was randomly drawn from a list of Alameda registered voters among households containing at least one registered voter.  The survey results were weighted based upon past Alameda voter turnout demographics from the 2008, 2006, 2004 and 2002 general election cycles.  

SOURCE Magellan Data and Mapping Strategies