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Show Rep. Jones releases results of Public Opinion Survey State Representative Garth Jones, of Cedar City recently released the results of an opinion survey conducted in Iron and Kane counties during the early part of February. The survey was organized for Representative Represen-tative Jones by Bob Spencer a senior political science major at SUSC. 250 telephone interviews were conducted at random in which opinions were solicited concerning the medical mal- practice issue, Kaiparowits, Predator Control, and Gun Control. Below is a summary of the results: .Question: "Do you feel that the rapid rise of medical malpractice mal-practice insurance is a threat to the quality of medical care in Utah?" Result: Yes 62 percent; No 11 percent; No Opinion 27 percent. 2. Question: (Asked of those who responded yes to question No. 1) "Who do you feel is most responsible for the problem?" Result: 19 percent said doctors, doc-tors, 23 percent lawyers, 9 percent politicians, 24 percent other, and 25 percent expressed no opinion. Comments: Kane County appears to have an exceptional regard for doctors. Only 44 percent felt that mal practice was a problem and less than 1 percent regarded doctors as being most responsible. In the Kanab . area several people commented (unsolicited) that they had two honest doctors serving in the community. : Cedar City was also favorable toward doctors with only 15 percent regarding them as responsible. Parowan, however, appeared to have strong misgivings toward the medical profession. 70 percent per-cent answered "yes" to question No. 1 and 52 percent regarded doctors as being most responsible respon-sible for the problem while 32 percent had no opinion. Of those who responded "other" a significant number cited "greedy" patients, and a lesser number said juries or insurance companies. In Cedar City and Kane County, lawyers appeared to get a significant amount of the blame (25 percent and 37 percent). per-cent). In Parowan lawyers were only cited on 8 percent of the interviews. 3. Question: (Asked of those who classified themselves as outdoorsmen) "Do you feel that predators cause significant damage to livestock and-or deer herds?" Result: Yes 91 percent; No 9 percent; No Opinion less than 1 percent Comment: The predator question revealed both a strong consensus (91 percent) as to the existence of significant predator damage, and decisiveness on the part of those interviewed. (less than 1 percent had no opinion on the subject). . 4. Question: (Outdoorsmen) "A bill is being considered that would raise $200,000 for predator control in the state of Utah by increasing the hunting license fee by one dollar. Would you favor such legislation?" Result: Yes 59 percent; No 21 percent; Undecided 20 percent. Comment: A significant number of those who opposed such legislation commented (unsolicited) that they favored expanding the use of poisons. Several who were undecided advocated the use of a high bounty and were not sure if any of the funds would be used for that purpose. 5. Question: "Do you feel that Southern Utah can have industrial in-dustrial development and still preserve the environment?" Result: Yes 81 percent; No 11 percent; No opinion 8 percent. Continued on page 5 Public Opinion Survey Results . . . Continued from front page offered few surprises (if any) but j they substantially supported his I previous thinking on the issues evaluated, , Comment: On the question of industrial development both Kane County and Parowan were 89 percent positive on being able to preserve the environment. Cedar City residents were slightly less positive with 13 percent answering no and 9 percent being undecided., 6. Question: "Which of the following statements best describes your attitude toward the proposed Kaiparowits project?" Result: "I strongly favor the project" 31 percent; "I favor the project" 46 percent; Total in favor 77 percent; "No opinion" 11 percent; "I oppose the project" 10 percent; and 'I strongly oppose the project" 2 percent with total opposed 12 percent. Comment: Kane County and Parowan residents were strongly in favor of Kaiparowits (88 percent and 87 percent). But, once again Cedar City residents were less positive (72 percent). Some of the difference might be found in the undecided column Cedar City having 14 percent undecided as compared to 3 percent elsewhere. In Kane County 9 percent opposed the project, 10 percent in Parowan, and 14 percent in Cedar City. Women were somewhat less favorable toward the project than men and those who had lived in the area less than 10 vears were most skeptical. The reasons most often cited (unsolicited) for favoring the project were: 1( "We need the work" and 2( "We're tired of seeing our children move out of the area." 7. Question: "Do you favor gun control?" Result: Yes 16 percent; No 77 percent; No opinion 7 percent. Comment: Even though the above question is vague as to the meaning of "gun control" it only caused 7 percent to respond "no opinion".. It is interesting that of the 16 percent who favored gun control 8 out of every 10 were women. According to Representative Jones the major purpose of the survey was to evaluate his performance in respect to the opinions of the people in his district. The results of the poll |