Realtors sponsor election survey

Some residents of Whitefish were asked

last week to take part in a telephone survey concerning the

upcoming city elections. The questionnaire was sponsored by the

Northwest Montana Association of Realtors (NMAR) and administered

by the North American Research Group.

John Sinrud, government affairs

director for NMAR, told the Pilot that the association is most

interested in finding out where voters stand concerning the

city-county planning “doughnut” and Whitefish’s Critical Area

Ordinance.

“Those are big issues now,” Sinrud

said. “It’s very difficult to get a property listed and sold [in

the doughnut].”

The results of the survey will be used

by NMAR to help the association better understand how much voters

know about these issues, he said, and which way they are leaning

about candidates. Sinrud is unsure if the results will be made

available to the public.

NMAR also sponsored a telephone survey

during the 2009 elections.

This year’s 29-question survey focused

on the city council and mayoral elections, the city-county planning

“doughnut” and Whitefish’s population trends.

Following a few general questions

regarding the respondent’s feelings about the state and local

governments, the seventh question addressed specific candidates.

Respondents were asked to rate their “feelings” toward each

candidate ranging from very favorable to very unfavorable.

The candidates included Turner Askew,

John Muhlfeld, Mary Vail, Richard Hildner, Jonathan Anderson, Frank

Sweeney, Doug Wise, Life Noell and Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

The 17th question asked, “Do you think

most members of the Whitefish City Council deserve to be re-elected

or do you think that others should be given a chance?” No city

councilors are running for re-election this year, as current

councilors Muhlfeld and Askew are running for mayor.

The 18th and 19th questions asked how

familiar respondents are with the “doughnut” zone and the

referendum to repeal the 2010 Interlocal Agreement. The 20th

question asked if the city or county should have planning and

zoning authority in the doughnut. The 21st question asked about

Whitefish’s population and if the respondent thought it was

increasing, decreasing or staying the same.

The survey ran from Aug. 29 to Sept.

5.