F& M Poll: Nutter Leads

For immediate release: Thursday, 2-10-11

The Franklin & Marshall College Poll…the 20th consecutive year of polling
in Pennsylvania

Please find attached and below the results of the February 10 Franklin &
Marshall College Philadelphia "State of the City" Poll. Complete results
can be found in the attachment or at http://politics.fandm.edu

* About half (47%) of city residents rate Philadelphia as an excellent
or good place to live.

* Nearly two in three (63%) city residents believe Philadelphia is
better or the same as a place to live compared to four years ago.

* City residents believe that crime (31%) and the economy (21%) are
the most important problems facing the city. Far fewer city residents cite
crime as the city’s most important problem than they did four years ago when
71% rated it as the most important problem.

* More residents have a favorable (50%) than unfavorable (32%) opinion
of Mayor Nutter. More white (60%) respondents than blacks (42%) have a
favorable opinion of the mayor.

* One-third (34%) of city voters say that Mayor Nutter has done an
excellent or good job as mayor while most (66%) say he has done only a fair
or poor job. More whites (50%) than blacks (23%) rate the mayor’s
performance excellent or good.

* The Nutter administration receives below average and failing grades
for creating jobs (50%) and reducing poverty (47%) in the city. It
receives its best grades for improving the city’s image (34% give the
administration an A or B) and fighting crime (31% give the administration an
A or B).

* Residents of the city are evenly divided on whether the state should
relinquish control of the city public schools; 43 percent think control
should be returned to the city while 43 percent say it should not be
returned.

* More residents believe the quality of the city’s public schools over
the past few years has gotten worse (33%) than believe it has gotten better
(17%).

* A majority of city residents (58%) believes that one casino license
is enough for the city.

* In a general election match up against Independent candidate Tom
Knox, Mike Nutter leads 46 percent to 28 percent with 26 percent undecided
at this time.

* In a Democratic primary match up, Mayor Nutter (39%) leads Bill
Green (17%) and Anthony Williams (17%) with 27 percent undecided.

Methodology

The survey findings presented in this release are based on the results of
interviews conducted January 31 – February 7, 2011. The interviews were
conducted at the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin & Marshall College
under the direction of the poll’s Director Dr. G. Terry Madonna, Head
Methodologist Berwood Yost, and Senior Project Managers Angela Knittle and
Kelly Frey. The data included in this release represent the responses of 400
adult residents of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, including 320 registered
voters. Telephone numbers for the survey were generated from three separate
sampling frames: an address-based sampling frame based on the USPS delivery
sequence file, a landline random digit dialing frame, and a cell phone
random digit dialing frame. Respondents were randomly selected from within
each sampled household. Survey results were weighted (age, education, race,
gender, and telephone service) using an iterative weighting algorithm.

The sample error for this survey is +/- 4.9 percentage points. The sample
error for registered adults is +/- 5.5 percentage points. In addition to
sampling error, this poll is also subject to other sources of non-sampling
error.

The Franklin & Marshall College Poll is produced in conjunction with the
Philadelphia Daily News, WGAL-TV (South Central PA), Pittsburgh Tribune
Review, WTAE-TV (Pittsburgh), WPVI-TV6/ABC (Philadelphia), Times-Shamrock
Newspapers, Harrisburg Patriot-News, and Lancaster Newspapers. It may be
used in whole or in part, provided any use is attributed to Franklin &
Marshall College.

Dr. G. Terry Madonna
Director, Center for Politics and Public Affairs
Director, Franklin and Marshall College Poll
Professor of Public Affairs
Franklin & Marshall College
P.O. Box 3003
Lancaster, PA. 17604
(717) 291-4052 Office
(717) 575-2164 Cell
(717) 358-4666 Fax
[email protected]