Poll: Dade Commission Gets Poor Marks
MIAMI (CBS4) - A Miami Herald-WFOR-Univision 23 poll taken as Miami-Dade voters head for the polls to possibly recall their mayor and a county commissioner shows that, on the whole, they don't think Miami-Dade commission is doing a great job, with just 3% giving them an excellent rating, but 64% rating them mediocre or poor.
The poll, released Sunday, was conducted last week by Bendixen & Amandi International among 400 Miami-Dade voters early last week.
The poll broke down that rating by ethnic groups, and found that Black voters gave the commission the highest rating by a slight margin, with 25% rating the commission excellent or good, a few points ahead of Anglo and Hispanic voters.
However, of those polled, only 1% of hispanic voters, the largest voting bloc in Miami-Dade county, thought the commission was doing an excellent job.
While a companion poll released Sunday indicated voters are well on their way toward recalling Mayor Carlos Alvarez because of his endorsement of a property tax increase budget, voters don't seem that upset about taxes when considering the commission.
Only 9% rates high property taxes as the most important problem in Miami-Dade, while:
- 30% targeted the lack of jobs,
- 21% said corruption in county government led the way
- 13% said the county's overall weak economy was the biggest problem.
If, as the Miami Herald/WFOR-CBS4/Univision 23 poll on the recall effort indicates, voters will soon be selecting a new mayor, voters will have a number of decisions to make. The poll asked voters to share the two biggest factors they will consider in selecting who to elect.
The 2-1 winner was "Is Honest and Ethical", with 62%. The runner-up is "Is a good administrator", with just 31%, unusual in a county with a "strong mayor", which has voted to eliminate it's professional county manager and let the mayor run day-to-day government.
Other choices:
- Has vision for the future 17%
- Is a strong leader 12%
- Understands people like me 12%
- Has governmental experience 10%
- Has basic competence 8%
- Unites the community 6%
- Has private sector experience 4%
So, in the eyes of voters, who meets those specs? The pollsters asked: "In November of 2012, there will be an election for Mayor of Miami‐Dade County. As of right now, there are several people who have expressed an interest in running for this position. If the election were held today and the candidates for mayor of Miami‐ Dade County were (see list), whom would you vote for?"
Not surprisingly, Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina, one of the first to declare an interest in the Mayor's Job, tops the list at 28%. He was the Favorite among 43% of of the hispanic voters in the poll, but was the top choice of only 14% of the Anglo voters and just 6% of Black voters.
Commissioner Carlos Gimenez, who opposed the Alvarez-endorsed tax increase, was runner-up with 9% overall, but he led the Anglo voters with 16%. Where Gimenez may have problems is in the Black community, as not a single Black voter selected him as their choice when asked.
The big current winner is "Undecided", with more than half the voters in the poll saying they have yet to know how they'd vote.
- Julio Robaina, Mayor of Hialeah 28%
- Carlos Gimenez, Miami-Dade Commissioner 9%
- Joe Martinez, Miami-Dade Commissionere 4%
- Roosevelt Bradley, Former Miami-Dade Transit Director 2%
- Luther Campbell, Football Coach and Rapper 2%
- Lazaro Gonzalez, Civic activist 1%
- Joshua Larose , former candidate for Mayor 1%
- Marcelo Llorente , Florida Representative 1%
- JC Bermudez, Mayor of Doral 0%
- Darrin Ellis, Minister 0%
- Santiago Portal 0%
The poll, conducted for The Miami Herald, WFOR-CBS4, and Univision 23 by Bendixen and Amandi International, questioned 400 voters countywide who. The questions were asked March 2 an March 3, 2011. The questions were asked in the language of the voter questioned. The margin of error is 4.9%.
