Kwame Kilpatrick's re-election is in doubt, new poll says

More than half of the Detroiters polled in a recent survey said Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has accomplished nothing or they don't know what he has done since taking office three years ago. And only one in five of the likely voters said they want to see the mayor re-elected. Those figures and others in an EPIC/MRA poll on the mayor's race conducted for WXYZ-TV (Channel 7) suggest that Kilpatrick's bid for a second term is in jeopardy. The poll also shows Kilpatrick losing to one of his main opponents and tying another in head-to-head matchups. The mayor's job approval ratings alone indicate that his fortunes have fallen dramatically. In February 2003, 71 percent of those surveyed said Kilpatrick was doing a good job, while 26 percent said he was doing a fair or poor job. By Sunday, only 36 percent of respondents gave him positive marks, while 62 percent gave him a negative rating. Both polls of about 400 people have a margin of error of about 5 percentage points. Kilpatrick's favorability rating also has dropped over the past two years, to 40 percent from 76 percent. And the percentage of respondents giving the mayor low marks rose to 53 percent from 16 percent, during the same time. "This is a very dramatic shift in the numbers," said Ed Sarpolus of EPIC/MRA. "All the focus has been on his own personal foibles, real or otherwise." [more]