What’s in a Poll?

You’ve heard about the poll commissioned by those who want Bob Duffy to run for mayor. It’s the one that has him up in a head to head contest with Wade Norwood by as many as 30 percentage points.

You’ve probably also heard that the full poll was posted on a website by the Duffy for Mayor group.

Do yourself a favor – take the poll with a pound of salt. It’s done too early in a race where no one (not even Norwood) calls himself or herself an official candidate.

But there are some fun elements of this poll. One segment is quite a sales pitch for Duffy. There are no less than seven Duffy selling points dressed up as questions in it ("If elected, Robert Duffy would make creating jobs his top priority…"). The respondents are supposed to say whether these are credible claims. There isn’t a similar set of questions for Norwood or any other candidate.

Then there are the negative questions. Those are done for both Duffy and Norwood. People are asked whether these statements would cast doubt on the candidate. They include:

–Duffy hasn’t done enough to reduce crime.

–He has done enough, but he doesn’t have experience to be mayor.

–Duffy switched parties, moving from the Republican Party in 1991

–Norwood would be too beholden to Albany because he was a staffer for Assemblyman David Gantt.

–Norwood hasn’t done anything to solve Rochester’s problems while serving 15 years as a city councilman

–Norwood is against the Fast Ferry takeover by the city.

This is an amusing poll. Just don’t take it too seriously.