The Majority of Chattanooga Voters Support Conservative Principles, Why Do They Vote for Progressive Gov’t?

The Chattanooga Mayoral Runoff Benchmark Survey was conducted by Spry Strategies and combined landline and mobile interviews from March 25-26 among a random sample of 330 likely voters. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 4.3 percentage points. The sample polled voters who voted in at least two of three mayoral general elections in 2009, 2013 and 2017. Results are weighted using the general election turnout model. 
Spry Strategies President Ryan Burrell commented on the analysis. “The Chattanooga electorate has a little bit of confusion going on between the ideals they support in a candidate and the candidate they are supporting for mayor. Kim White’s mayoral platform represents the majority of voters’ sentiment. Economic development and job creation and crime and public safety are the number one and two issues, respectively, and have been since we ran the first survey two and half months ago. Kim White favors conservative fiscal principles over Tim Kelly’s social program economic position that is readily available on his website. Tim Kelly supports BLM and Kim White supports the men in blue. Kim White is pro-life and the majority of Chattanoogans oppose Planned Parenthood’s increased presence and possible plans to open an abortion clinic in the city. Tim Kelly supports Planned Parenthood and they support him if you look at the FEC donor disclosures. 
“And yet, Tim Kelly has a 13% edge at this point in the run-off for two major reasons. First, the Kelly campaign has galvanized support from his opponents from the general election with 34.1% support from the black community compared to 13.1% for Kim White. Kelly has 22% of his support coming from Republicans to Kim White’s 13%. The interesting statistic from the party/ethnicity crosstab is that Kelly seems to be dominating white middle-age males with 67.9% of his support coming from males. Kim White needs high turnout from females, low turnout from blacks, and something to energize the Republican base. The general election looked almost identical to this three weeks out and the battle lines were drawn, thanks in large part to Tim Kelly’s hot mic attacking Rush Limbaugh. The Republicans united, but voters have short memories, Kim White should not be afraid to let the voters know she is a fiscally conservatize moderate Republican and believes in sustainable jobs with strong pay for all Chattanoogans, safer communities and strong family values. As you can see from the poll reports, Kim White and the Chattanooga electorate are on the same team.”
Source: Spry Strategies