Not too proud about that headline. Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy’s poll about the use of City funds to bankroll the new arena showed overwhelming public support for going to the ballot box, the Bee reports today. However, Think Big Sacramento, the Mayor’s initiative aimed at making the arena happen, calls the poll suspicious. Apparently they have their own poll that contradicts Sheedy’s:
Chris Lehane, head of the mayor’s Think Big Sacramento commission, pointed to a poll his group commissioned in August that found majority support for selling some city land, and for leasing city parking garages as part of a potential financing plan.
Supporting putting it to a vote and supporting some of those uses don’t seem to be diametrically opposed, but I’d have to see the questions on both polls. The Bee doesn’t supply those.
Johnson political adviser David Townsend went even further in dismissing the poll.
“Voters have lost such confidence in government that they think they should vote on anything,” Townsend said.
Yeah, we suck at not letting the government do what it wants. Marcos Breton thinks otherwise. I’ll take his point about the political wranglings. But I don’t think it’s out of the question that after what happened in the past, public support for this is not necessarily as firm as thought by those who drink Think Big’s Kool-Aid.
The more the NBA lockout presses on, pushing for Sacramento to “Think Big” about dropping a chunk of change the size of Amare Stoudemire’s ego while dismissing public’s interest in this matter out of hand is not a winning approach.
The Sac Rag 
I heard the poll’s validity is being disputed, though I don’t know the details. But even if the poll is perfectly valid, I agree- the public’s desire to vote on the proposal isn’t necessarily skepticism about the proposal.
CA voters love having a direct say in things. A few weeks ago, a Field Poll showed 7 in 10 Californians believe the voters make better decisions in the public interest than the politicians, and more than half still favor having statewide ballot propositions.. If you ask a Californian ‘want to vote on this?’ they tend to say ‘yes,’ regardless of the issue.
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SactownRoyalty claims to have the questions from Sheedy’s poll, which are pretty biased push poll questions, if true. Of course, if you want to see the Kings stay, you’re likely to believe StR, and if you want them to leave, you’re not.
http://www.sactownroyalty.com/2011/10/26/2516600/sacramento-kings-arena-sandy-sheedy
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