I received a copy of an internal Mike Robins poll conducted via cell phone text late this week. There were nearly 7,300 texts sent, nearly 600 responses, with about an 8% engagement rate.
The results show Mike Robbins with a decent lead at 39% of respondents, followed by undecided at 23%, Dave Bronson at 21%. Leftist darlings Forrest Dunbar and Bill Falsey are at 7% and 6% respectively. Bill Evans pulled 3%. The margin of error is +/- 4%.
What to make out of this? Unknown, as I am not all that familiar with the ability of unsolicited cell phone text polls to predict anything. However, if you assume the poll was done to gather actual data rather than tell the candidate what he wants to hear, this is a useful data point for this phase of the campaign for Anchorage Mayor.
What I do expect is future polling to produce wildly varying results, as they are today increasingly used to shape opinion rather than report it (Ivan Moore, this means you).
Take this one as a decent starting point, a snapshot of public opinion here in Anchorage as of Jan 21.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
