Friday, January 8, 2010
40 Jealous Whores / Woods Poll: Voters Overwhelmingly Against Convention Center
Posted by Jeff Woods on Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 6:11 PM
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A poll released tonight by Channel 4 shows Nashvillians are overwhelmingly against the new convention center. Only one in four voters are for it, and 72 percent say the project ought to wait for the results of a public referendum.
Until now, the Dean administration's big plan looked like a slam-dunk in the Metro Council. As Joey Garrison reported in The City Paper, lobbyists and council members on both sides all are predicting council approval of the Music City Center come Jan. 19's critical final vote. Will this poll derail the project?
Here's a key finding: Not only are people against the convention center, they are sufficiently riled up about it to vote out council members who support it. It's a deal-breaker for many voters. Among those against the project, 87 percent say they'd be less likely to reelect a politician who votes for it.
Videos with reaction from Emily Evans, Mike Jameson, Michael Craddock, Ralph Schulz and more.
Update: The Music City Center's boosters are trying to undermine the poll's credibility. Here's an email to Pith from Dave Cooley, the lobbyist employed by the coalition of businesses for the project:
I've seen and played a part in conducting several hundred polls dating back to 1984 and with all due respect, this poll is at questionable and at worst, horribly flawed. To put things into perspective, a poll of 401 in a city of over 650,000 is underwhelming, at best. I would be reluctant to use this tiny sample size in a city council race. I can't imagine how this is a representative sample or for that matter even relevant. While my sense is that they were attempting to write questions that were fair, it is virtually impossible to capture the complexities of this issue in a single sentence. Think about it, 200 people responded (likely punched a keypad) negatively to a question that after reading the way it is phrased would make anyone question support for the project. And who did the poll? I don't recall ever seeing a news organization identify a poll that they commissioned as an "independent poll." What is that all about? Overall, I'm not impressed.
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