The LuLac Edition #1594, May 15th, 2011

PHOTO INDEX: OUR SURVEY LOGO.

LULAC POLL RESULTS

Last week we put up a poll on The LuLac Letter to specifically ask two questions. The first was who would you vote for in the Wilkes Barre City Mayor’s race and the second one was regarding the race for Common Pleas Court Judge in Luzerne County. The poll was made available to LuLac readers through Survey Monkey.com. It was a poll that was taken by people who read LuLac. The way that it was set up was that there could be no repeat voters. This is not a scientific poll in terms of demographics or preferences. But it is a snap shot of what LuLac readers are thinking.
The first question deals with the Wilkes Barre Mayor’s Race. In that poll, which asked the question, Who do you intend to vote for in the upcoming Democratic primary election for Wilkes Barre City Mayor?
The results were :
Tom Leighton 31%
Charlotte Raup 64%
Nick Punko 8%.
The results of this survey are surprising in the sense that Raup is beating Leighton 2 to 1 after virtually spending little or no money. The Mayor has been actively campaigning and utilizing all types of media to tout the progress the city of Wilkes Barre made in his 2 terms. But there seems to be an undercurrent in the city regarding not only Leighton but the way the City Council has been responding to citizens who want to address that body. And even though Leighton has campaigned hard in the perceived soft spot, the neighborhoods it is evident that there is a problem. If there is a problem in a park or playground, a petty robbery or vandalism, it is not Tom Leighton’s fault personally. But he is the face of city government and because he has been around for 2 terms as Mayor, people may irrationally blame him for everything. Plus under the Strong Mayor form of government set forth in 1975, no Wilkes Barre Mayor has been re elected to a third term. From a political standpoint, Leighton ran poorly against now Senator Yudichak in last year’s race to succeed Ray Musto. Those numbers exhibited a breakdown in the city organization. Only time will tell if this poll will be accurate on election night. But one thing is for certain, this race will be close.

LUZERNE COUNTY JUDGES

Another question was posed to LuLac readers on who their choice for Luzerne County Common Pleas Court Judge would be. Keep in mind that unlike the Mayor’s question, there were people who “bullet” voted in this Judge’s poll. So these figures represent in effect a type of popularity contest. The percentages will not add up to 100 because some people skipped candidates and this question. All 16 candidates were listed and here’s how they fared:
Fred Pierantoni 38%
Richard Hughes 33%
Joe Sklarosky Jr. 30%
Mike Vough 29%
Jennifer Rogers 28%
Joe Saporito 23%
Mark Bufalino 22%
Molly Hanlon Mirabito 21%
Lesa Gelb 21%
Paula Radick 18%
Vito DeLuca 17%
Jim Haggerty 16%
John Aciukewicz 14%
Mike Blazick 13%
Jim McMonagle 7%
Tony Ross 4%
If you take a look at the top 6, you’ll see that three of the top 6 were also candidates (Hughes, Sklarosky, Junior and Rogers) in 2009. Repeat name recognition means a lot. Also 2 of the top 6 are Republicans and as you know Judicial candidates can cross file. An interesting point is the way, that after the top 6, each group of candidates tend to bunch up into tiers. Bufalino, Gelb and Mirabito are within percentages of one another and just two points behind Saporito. Keep in mind this is only a snapshot.
This polling was an exercise in seeing what the pulse is among LuLac readers willing to respond to the questions. That said, we live by the political creed, “That the only poll that matters is the one on Election Day”. But in the meantime…………………..