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What Do the Candidates for Accomack County Board of Supervisors Think? (September 10, 2007)
The Accomack County Board of Supervisors Opinion Survey
In the month August, you survey hound has been active interviewing all the candidates for the Accomack County Board of Supervisors. Below we relate why the County needed such a survey and the rules of engagement. The complete responses to all the surveys are posted here in the links below. We did this in cooperation with the Eastern Shore News, to which we sent the survey results and which published a summary of the results on Wednesday, September 12.
Why SONs did a Board of Supervisor candidate Survey
Here is how Tony Picardi explained the survey to the interviewees. “I have undertaken to do an opinion survey of each candidate running for Board of Supervisor in Accomack County. I am doing this on my own time. This is intended to be a totally objective view of what ALL the candidates think is important and what they would do about those issues. This will give the voters an objective view of what matters to each candidate. It is more comprehensive than the Post survey recently circulated, so I will submit the unique responses from this survey to them (The Post). I will post the entire responses on the SaveOurNecks.com web site, where we do not have space constraints. I will send the complete responses to the Eastern Shore News, which has promised to summarize the results and post the complete responses in a subsequent issue of The Neighbor.”
“I am doing this because I believe that informed voters are the foundation of our democracy and I am willing to put effort behind my beliefs. Your participation will allow voters in all districts to see what their leaders and potential leaders think and it will give you yet another chance to connect with voters on what you feel is important.”
The Survey Methodology
We called each candidate until we either made contact or ran out of time. Then we either conducted the interviews over the phone, or emailed or snail-mailed the questionnaire. Once responses were obtained from all the cooperating candidates, we emailed or mailed the complete text back to the interviewee for verification – is this what you meant to say? A few respondents edited their answers. No respondent saw any other respondent’s answers at any time.
The Survey Instrument
These are the 5 questions we posed to the Supervisor candidates. We asked open ended questions for the first three to see what was top of mind for them and then we asked two directed questions on water and public safety, as these are two areas that SONs feels need more responsible governance on the part of the County.
1. In your opinion, what are the top three problems for the county?
2. Why are these problems?
3. What would you do about them if elected to the Board of Supervisors?
4. What do you think about water in the county – Storm water, Ground water, sea water, bay water?
5. What do you think of the recent (June, 2007) report on the Accomack County Public Safety System?
The Responses
We contacted all sixteen candidates but one, Kay Lewis. She was totally incommunicado, even though we left her at least nine phone messages and mailed her a survey with an return addressed and stamped envelope. Of the remaining 15 candidates, four have refused to participate, even though it was made clear to them that a third party, the editors at the Eastern Shore News, were going to do any summarization necessary. While SONs may not agree that refusing to communicate with the voters is in the best way to achieve an informed electorate, we do defend these candidates’ right to remain silent. Below is a tally of the respondents, their districts and competition, if any. By clicking on the respondent’s name, you will link to their response.
What SONs thinks
SONs has analyzed the candidate’s responses and has the following opinion (link to George’ and other opinions here) on the contested races.
Let us hear what you think
Please join the discussion on any of these topics by clicking the link on the page or contact us with your suggestions.
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