Rose Law Group Staff
January 21, 2019
(Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents the Phoenix Suns)
To assess the level of community support for the Talking Stick Resort Arena renovation project and to see if public meetings and information distributed over the past month were making any sort of impact (either positive or negative), one of the leading pollsters in the nation, Public Opinion Strategies (POS), was hired to conduct a live caller statistical sample of “likely voters” in Phoenix City Council Districts 5 and 7.
POS is a nationally recognized market research company that, since its founding in 1991, has completed more than 22,000 research projects and interviewed more than 9.5 million Americans across the country. It is one of the most highly regarded and reputable players in the polling industry. POS has both a national and local Arizona client base.
Nationally, it has worked with eleven U.S.senators, six governors, 46 members of Congress, local governments, and a plethora corporations such as the American Medical Association, AT&T, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Stanford University, and the Wall Street Journal. Locally, Public Opinion Strategies’ clients include Governor Doug Ducey, Congressman Andy Biggs, Congresswoman Debbie Lesko, and former Senators Jon Kyl and John McCain.
Enclosed please find not only the polls from both districts, but also two memos from the pollster with key findings and a summary. Glen Bolger, the pollster says, “As people learn that the city owns the arena and the tax has been imposed since 1989 and is only on tourists, support grows. We found support hitting over 70 percent.”
Some key findings:
When voters were read two contrasting views about the proposed renovations, voters in District 7 strongly supported the proposal – with 67% in support, and 72% of Democrats coming down on the pro-renovation side. In District 5, when voters were read the two contrasting views, pro-renovation support was at 62 % with Democrats at 64% and just 31% of all voters opposing the proposal.
The poll was funded by the Phoenix Sun.
