56% of voters have favorable opinion of Chattanooga mayor, according to Times Free Press poll

A higher percentage of the voters polled by the Chattanooga Times Free Press during November’s general election had a favorable opinion of Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly compared to Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp.

The Times Free Press sampled 311 voters at six early voting sites and 19 precincts on Election Day. Over the course of a 17-question survey that covered topics like affordability and the state’s bans on critical race theory and abortion, the paper also asked voters whether they had a generally favorable or unfavorable opinion of Wamp and Kelly.

For Wamp, 34.7% of 303 respondents said they had a favorable opinion, 32% an unfavorable opinion and 31.7% were unsure. An additional 4.3% either declined to answer or offered a different response. For Kelly, 56.3% of 304 respondents had a favorable opinion, 23.4% were unsure and 19.1% had an unfavorable opinion. An additional 3.6% declined to answer, offered a different response or left the question blank.

“Mayor Wamp is focused on increasing career training for Hamilton County students and bringing transparency to county government, not political polling,” Mary Francis Hoots, Wamp’s director of communications, said in a statement Wednesday. “This exit poll was clearly unscientific and appears to have significantly over-weighted the more liberal city of Chattanooga versus the rest of Hamilton County, which is overwhelmingly conservative. For example, in the recent August election, Mayor Wamp’s 18 strongest precincts were outside the city of Chattanooga.”

Wamp took office on Sept. 1 this year and Kelly in April 2021. Kelly was unavailable for an interview, but his chief of staff, Joda Thongnopnua, said Tuesday that Kelly has been a proponent of localism since his campaign.

“He said that we’re going to take a nonpartisan approach to building toward One Chattanooga, and I think the poll results bear out that our community appreciates that and also that our community is optimistic,” Thongnopnua said. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges on the horizon and there aren’t serious barriers that we have to get over to realize that vision, but at the same time, I think it does mean this community thinks those problems are tackleable and we have leadership responsive to the challenges that we face.”

Kirsten Yates, Kelly’s senior advisor for communications, said the mayor received those results despite controversy surrounding some recent projects, including construction of a new minor league baseball stadium for the Chattanooga Lookouts at the former U.S. Pipe/Wheland Foundry site.

The city’s effort to convert the former Airport Inn at 7725 Lee Highway into permanent supportive housing has also generated its share of criticism, particularly from people who work and live near the planned project site. A request to rezone the property recently cleared the City Council, and officials will next request proposals for a developer and service provider.

“Our mayor is one who has never been afraid to stand up and take risks for things that he thinks will make Chattanooga a better place,” Yates said. “I think folks trust him to do that. It really says a lot that we saw those results in the face of some of those projects.”

Thongnopnua said some of those projects, and the leadership the mayor brought to those projects, might have resonated and produced some of the poll results rather than have been a hindrance.

“Folks go to the ballot box and they elect leaders and then anticipate they will lead, and that doesn’t mean sticking your finger in the wind for every project. It means having a clear vision for your community,” Thongnopnua said.

Chris Acuff, an assistant professor of public administration at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, said that polls are fundamentally a snapshot in time and can change significantly over the course of an elected official’s tenure.

“One thing that’s important to consider is that neither of these candidates were on the (November) ballot, so the candidates and issues at the front of voters’ minds likely had less to do with the Chattanooga or Hamilton County mayor and more to do with state and national politics,” Acuff said in an email Wednesday. “Many voters are often more politically attuned to political and economic issues at the federal or state level, particularly around the time of a midterm election.”

Survey respondents also tend to judge officials by recent events in the news, he added. In Hamilton County, local headlines in the weeks leading up to Nov. 8 were dominated by conflicts between Wamp, the County Commission and County Attorney Rheubin Taylor.

“Regardless of one’s position on the issues at hand, this likely doesn’t help any of these officials’ approval ratings,” Acuff said. “To be fair to Mayor Wamp, it would’ve been interesting to also gauge voters’ opinions of individual commissioners or the commission as a whole during this same time period to get a clearer picture of how respondents view county government more broadly.”

Even though the county primaries were in May, Acuff said, there also may be some lingering animosity toward Wamp from voters who supported other candidates. There was also a relatively large percentage of voters who didn’t have a strong opinion about either Kelly or Wamp.

“Unfortunately, we often see that voters pay less attention to local government and politics compared to the state or federal levels,” Acuff said. “Even though both mayors likely have strong name recognition within the county, many people may not follow the day-to-day happenings of local government and don’t have a strong opinion about their favorability or performance in office.”

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The Chattanooga Times Free Press sampled 311 randomly selected people during early voting and on Election Day. Of those sampled, 51.6% were women and 48.4% men. Additionally, 76% were white and 24% people of color.

Early voting sites sampled (123 responses): Amnicola voting headquarters, Brainerd, Hixson, Collegedale, Soddy-Daisy and Highway 58.

Election day samples (188 responses): Alton Park, Bonny Oaks, Brainerd Hills, Concord, downtown, East Brainerd, East Ridge, Glenwood, Lookout Valley, Lupton City, North Chattanooga, Ooltewah, Red Bank, Sale Creek, Soddy-Daisy, Signal Mountain, St. Elmo, Stuart Heights and Walden.

The questions about Mayors Wamp and Kelly were among 17 that the paper asked voters as part of the survey. A full breakdown of the answers is below:

For Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp, do you have a generally favorable or unfavorable opinion?

— 34.7% favorable (105 responses).

— 32% unfavorable (97).

— 31.7% unsure (96).

— 2.6% decline to answer (8).

— 1.7% other (5).

For Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly, do you have a generally favorable or unfavorable opinion?

— 56.3% favorable (171 responses).

— 23.4% unsure (71).

— 19.1% unfavorable (58).

— 1.3% blank (4).

— 1.3% other (4).

— 1% decline to answer (3).

Contact David Floyd at dfloyd@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249. Follow him on Twitter @flavid_doyd.

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