New poll shows Carlisle's high approval rating

By Lisa Kubota - bio | email

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Honolulu mayor Peter Carlisle is busy dealing with rail critics and budgets woes, but his approval rating is still high after seven months on the job. Carlisle points to the rail groundbreaking and his handling of the city's budget as a couple of his accomplishments. 64% of voters surveyed in the Hawaii Poll by Hawaii News Now and the Honolulu Star-Advertiser approve of his job performance, while 23% disapprove.

Q12. (OAHU ONLY) And do you generally approve or disapprove of the job Mayor Peter Carlisle is doing with the challenges facing the City & County of Honolulu? (n=443 O'ahu respondents)

Approve..................................................................... 64%

Disapprove................................................................. 23

Don't Know/Refused.................................................. 13

"The message when I was coming into the office was things were going to be different at city hall, and I hope what this reflects is that people think things are different and therefore moving in the right direction," Carlisle said.

"There's still budget problems and budget questions that have to be answered, and he's going to be the face of those budget problems, and how he answers that is going to affect his favorability. But right now it's alarmingly high for someone who's in the middle of a hard budget year," said Honolulu Star-Advertiser political columnist Richard Borreca.

The poll also asked residents to rate the impact of different groups on elected officials in Hawaii. A combined 83% of those surveyed believe labor unions have a strong influence.

"We try to work with the legislators to really ensure that the hopes that we have for our future comes to pass, and in that respect I think we try to build good partnerships," said John White, executive director of The Pacific Resource Partnership which represents the Hawaii Carpenters Union.

"I'm going to do what is appropriate considering the economic condition that we're in and the necessities of running the city and county," said Carlisle.

A combined 72% believe business interests have a strong influence, followed by environmental groups with a combined 63%, and social service advocates with a combined 49%.

Q15. How would you rate the influence of the following groups on our elected officials in Hawai'i? The first is: Would you say they have a very strong, strong, weak, or very weak influence on our elected officials in Hawai'i?

Labor Unions            Business Interests               Environ. Groups         Social Service Advocates

Very strong ...48%              25%                                   13%                                 9%

Somewhat strong...35         47                                      50                                   40

Somewhat weak...8             16                                      24                                   31

A very weak influence...4       5                                        5                                     9

Don't know/Refused...5          7                                        8                                   12

A combined 40% of residents have a high opinion of public sector or government labor unions, compared to 55% with a low opinion.

Q16. What is your opinion of the public sector, or government, labor unions? Would you say you have a:

Very high opinion....................................................... 8%

Somewhat high opinion............................................. 32

Somewhat low opinion............................................... 35

Very low opinion........................................................ 20

Don't know/Refused.................................................. 5

"I think when we recognize we want the same things that those attitudes hopefully will change over time and people will recognize that we're really in this together."

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