Poll: Half of Respondents Want Harrisburg Mayor to Resign

Pennsylvania's capital city is on the verge of bankruptcy, and earlier this month, several hundred Harrisburg residents called on Mayor Linda Thompson to step down. Former aides telling reporters she frequently criticizes people's religion and sexuality.

Harrisburg's voters have little confidence in Mayor Thompson, according to a new poll commissioned by NPR affiliate WITF-FM and the Harrisburg Patriot-News.
When it comes to Thompson's job performance, just 12 percent of respondents say she's doing an "excellent" or "good" job, compared to 57 percent who rate her as "poor."
Terry Madonna of Terry Madonna Opinion Research, who conducted the poll, says that's unprecedented.

"In 20 years of polling I have never seen a job performance number in which only 12 percent of the people believe that the chief executive of a city - and I've polled in mayoral elections before - or in the case of a president of in the case of a governor, only 12 percent of the people say 'excellent' or 'good.'"


49 percent of respondents say Thompson should resign, though there's a sharp racial divide on that question.
73 percent of white respondents say the mayor should step down before her term ends, while just 20 percent of non-white voters feel that way.
About half of the people polled say City Council is doing a "fair" job, while 21 percent rate their performance as "good."
The poll surveyed 400 Harrisburg voters, and has a 4.9 percent margin of error.