Three old hands, one newcomer dominate Salisbury Council poll

While this is far from a scientific poll and it was possible to stack the deck, the best-known names tended to dominate my first Salisbury City Council survey. Here are the results:

  1. Tim Spies – 48 votes (19.28%)
  2. Orville Dryden, Jr. – 47 votes (18.88%)
  3. Muir Boda – 46 votes (18.47%)
  4. Terry Cohen – 46 votes (18.47%)
  5. Joel Dixon – 24 votes (9.64%)
  6. Bruce Ford – 17 votes (6.83%)
  7. Michael Taylor – 11 votes (4.42%)
  8. Laura Mitchell – 10 votes (4.02%)

Among the finishers, I wasn’t surprised to see the incumbent and previous candidates finishing in the top tier. But Dryden’s support was surprising and if he can parlay that into actual votes he’ll easily advance through the primary.

In the bottom half, Dixon and Ford did a little better than Taylor and Mitchell yet lagged far behind the top four. That’s a trend which tends to occur in Salisbury races – while six advance, the winners have generally come from the top four. It’s tough for the #5 and #6 finishers to leap over two or three others to win, although it could conceivably occur in a close race. If this poll reflects the actual results, though, I would peg the contest as one of four people seeking three spots.

I’ll probably do another survey in the latter half of February – in the meantime I’m awaiting answers to my questions from a number of candidates. So far only Muir Boda and Bruce Ford have replied, so the other six better get cracking! How about reminding them, readers?

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.