An InsiderAdvantage survey conducted in conjunction with OpinionSavvy (www.opinionsavvy.com) this weekend indicates that while a significant segment of Georgians remain upset over the response to the winter storm of last week, their level of irritation and embarrassment might be less than some news reports suggest.
And a majority of respondents seem lukewarm on the idea of forcing controversial Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) Director Charley English out of his job.
Survey respondents were asked, “Following Georgia’s response to the recent winter storm,” what, if anything, should happen to Director English? Twenty percent said he should resign and 19 percent said he should be fired. But the majority of respondents either believed he should keep his job (28 percent), or they were undecided (33 percent).
After days of intense local and national media reports — many of them highly critical of how government officials in Georgia handled the emergency — a majority of poll respondents said either they were embarrassed by the negative press coverage, but didn’t believe it would be a long-term, national public relations problem for Georgia (33 percent); or they said they weren’t embarrassed at all (28 percent).
Still, that left 33 percent who said they were both embarrassed over how their leaders responded to the storm, and believed the response to the storm would do long-term harm to Georgia in the eyes of the rest of the nation. The remainder of the respondents were undecided.
InsiderAdvantage CEO Matt Towery: “Democrats (42%) and independent voters (38%) were more likely than Republicans (22%) to say that they were embarrassed over the response to the storm, and felt there would be some long-term negatives for the state in the eyes of the rest of the country.
“When the responses to this question over ‘embarrassment’ are compared with those of how Director English should be dealt with, we see a range of 30 to 40 percent who seem upset over the matter. And with elections coming up that is no small percentage to simply ignore.
“But that said, it looks as if the anger is not so high as to drive a large percentage of Georgians to demand that ‘heads roll,’ or for them to hide underneath their beds in shame for the state.
“In the end, this whole thing will die down and it essentially will be up to how Gov. Deal and other elected officials continue to address it. It could also be a factor if political opponents to the status quo such as Jason Carter use it in a more coordinated attack through paid television ads in the fall elections.”
The scientific online poll surveyed 445 random respondents in Georgia. It was conducted with our online survey partner OpinionSavvy February 1-2. It is weighted for age, race, gender, and political affiliation. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.59% with a confidence level of 95%. To learn more about the accuracy of online public surveys visit www.opinionsavvy.com.
