Voters' opinions revealed in poll

More than half of those polled aren't familiar with three candidates.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Almost one out of every four registered voters in Youngstown has an unfavorable opinion of Robert F. Hagan, the Democratic mayoral nominee, according to a poll commissioned by WYTV.
Also more than half of the city's registered voters are unfamiliar with three of the six candidates, including the Republican nominee.
The local ABC television affiliate hired Survey USA of New York City to conduct a telephone poll Oct. 11 of 468 Youngstown registered voters, Democratic, Republican and independent. They were selected at random. The percentage polled in each group represents the actual percentage of registered voters in each group. The poll's margin of error is 4.6 percent.
The poll asked the opinions -- favorable, not favorable, neutral or unfamiliar -- of each of the six Youngstown mayoral candidates.
Unfavorable numbers
Hagan has a 24 percent unfavorable rating. That is second only to Joe Louis Teague, an independent candidate, whose unfavorable rating is 26 percent, according to the poll.
Republican Robert Korchnak's unfavorable rating is 17 percent. Brendan J. Gilmartin and Maggy Lorenzi, both independent candidates, each have an unfavorable rating of 14 percent.
Jay Williams, who resigned in April as the city's former Community Development Agency director to run as an independent candidate, had the lowest unfavorable rating, 13 percent.
Hagan, a state legislator since 1987, had the lowest unfamiliar rating at 11 percent.
Korchnak's unfamiliar rating is the highest, at 59 percent. Gilmartin and Lorenzi are next, tied with 54 percent each. Teague's unfamiliar rating is 36 percent, and Williams' is 17 percent.
Neutral opinions
Those who said they had a neutral opinion of the candidates ranged between 19 percent -- for Williams and Korchnak -- and 25 percent -- for Gilmartin and Teague. Lorenzi's neutral rating was 22 percent and Hagan's was 24 percent.
Williams received a 51 percent favorable rating, followed by Hagan with 41 percent, Teague with 13 percent, Lorenzi with 10 percent, Gilmartin with 7 percent and Korchnak with 5 percent.
Williams' favorable rating was higher than the other five candidates in gender, every age, race, party affiliation and political ideology category except two.
Hagan's favorable rating was higher than Williams' among white voters, 58 percent to 38 percent, and among Hispanic voters, 55 percent to 25 percent. Williams, who is black, received a 68 percent favorable rating among blacks compared with 22 percent for Hagan, who is white.
Tagged by Hagan and his campaign as the Republican candidate of choice, Williams received a 45 percent favorable rating from those who identify themselves as Republicans. Hagan was second in that category with a 38 percent favorable rating.
Favorable numbers
Williams, a registered Democrat, received a 51 percent favorable rating from those identifying themselves as Democrats compared with 42 percent for Hagan.
The WYTV poll asked participants what is the most important issue in the city among five categories.
Job creation was clearly the winner with 48 percent. It was followed by crime at 29 percent, economic development at 9 percent, tax relief at 8 percent, and race relations at 2 percent.
skolnick@vindy.com