Should it be a crime for people to smoke marijuana in their own home or the home of a friend?

2015 Coming Soon ShelviePolls.com

Do you support or oppose stricter gun control laws in Cleveland?

October 20, 2014- Gun control is a recurring issue in Cleveland, Ohio and across America. Seventy percent (70%) Cleveland adults support the Second Amendment right to carry firearms.

A recent Shelvie Poll survey showed that forty percent (40%) of Cleveland adults support stricter gun control laws. While thirty-four percent (34%) oppose stricter gun control with twenty-six percent (26%) not sure.

Survey questions

1. Do you support or oppose stricter gun control laws in Cleveland?

· 40% support stricter gun control laws.

· 34% oppose stricter gun control laws.

· 26% not sure.

2. Do you support the Second Amendment to the Constitution that guarantees the rights of Americans to own guns?

· 70% support the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

· 23% oppose the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

· 7% not sure.


Method

The survey sampled 1993 likely adult voters in Cleveland, Ohio and produced a ± 3 margin of error. 100% of the surveys were conducted over the phone.


NOTE: Margin of Sampling Error, +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence

*This poll was done independently and not commissioned by a PAC or elected official.

Shelvie Polls is a primary research and public opinion polling information organization based in Cleveland, Ohio established in 2008 by Eugene Miller. We explore key issues to understand the underlying values that impact and connect communities. Shelvie Polls conducts telephone polls of registered voters on a regular basis.

For more information email Shelviepolls@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @Shelviepolls

"Do you support or oppose stricter gun control laws in Cleveland?”

5 out 10 Ohio adults believe spanking a child is inappropriate punishment for children.

“Do You Believe Spanking Is An Appropriate Punishment For Children”?

October 8, 2014

5 out 10 Ohio adults believe spanking a child is inappropriate punishment for children.

“Spare the rod or spoil the child” is a heated debate once again across America. In a recent Shelvie Poll survey show that twenty-six percent (26%) of Ohio adults believe spanking a child is appropriate punishment. While fifty-nine percent (59%) feel spanking a child is inappropriate punishment with fifteen percent (15%) not sure. Surveys were conducted September 26 to October 3, 2014.

Survey questions

Do You Believe Spanking Is An Appropriate Punishment For Children?

1. Believe spanking children is appropriate. 26% yes
2. Believe spanking children is inappropriate. 59% no
3. Not sure 15%

Method

The survey sampled 2,581 Ohio adults and produced a ± 4margin of error. 100% of the surveys were conducted over the phone.

2,581 Ohio adults
40 to 65 age
50/50 Male & Female

NOTE: Margin of Sampling Error, +/- 4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

*This poll was done independently and not commissioned by a PAC or elected official. Shelvie Polls is a primary research and public opinion polling information organization based in Cleveland, Ohio established in 2008 by Eugene Miller. We explore key issues to understand the underlying values that impact and connect communities. Shelvie Polls conducts telephone polls of registered voters on a regular basis.

For more information email Shelviepolls@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ShelviePolls

“Reviewing Last Week’s Shelvie Polls”

2,468 likely voters from Brecksville-Broadview Heights have weighed in on the proposed levy for November 4th. Forty-five percent (45%) approve while thirty-five (35%) disapprove and twenty (20%) are unsure. Surveys were conducted September 23- 26, 2014.

CNN/ORC poll gives McConnell 50 percent support

A new independent #poll shows Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) cracking 50 percent support for the first time in his battle with Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, and is the latest in a series of surveys to give him a four-point lead.

The CNN/ORC poll gives McConnell 50 percent support among likely voters and Grimes 46 percent support, with less than 5 percent undecided.

Nineteen percent of respondents said they “might change their mind” about the race between now and Election Day.

It’s the fifth poll out of the past six to give McConnell a four-point lead over his Democratic opponent, and the first to put him at the 50-percent mark considered comfortable for an incumbent.

And it comes despite a difficult week for McConnell, which saw him under fire from Democrats for comments he made to a private gathering of conservative strategists that were leaked to the public, and facing questions about the resignation of his campaign manager amid a bribery scandal.

Democrats note that the poll didn't include the libertarian candidate in the race, and also that it was conducted from last Thursday through Monday, when news of the resignation hadn't yet taken hold in the race.

But Grimes has had a rocky few weeks herself, struggling to answer questions about her campaign bus, which appears to have been rented from her father’s company for a lower-than-market rate that may amount to an illegal in-kind contribution.

That might in part explain why she faces a potentially troubling defection of Democrats in the new CNN poll. It shows 16 percent of Democrats are supporting McConnell, more than twice the number of Republicans she’s drawing away from the senator. And that might indicate McConnell's argument that his clout in the Senate is needed in Kentucky is taking hold.

President Obama remains deeply unpopular in Kentucky, with only 29 percent of respondents approving of his job performance. Republicans have done all they can to tie Grimes to the president — particularly on the issue of coal, which makes up a significant portion of Kentucky’s economy.

Despite Grimes’s efforts to distance herself from the president, those attacks appear to have worked, as McConnell leads by 20 percent in eastern Kentucky and 28 percent in western Kentucky, the state’s two coal-producing regions. Grimes, however, leads substantially in the more urban areas of the state.

McConnell still remains the Democrats' top Senate target this cycle, due in part to his unpopularity in the state, but the new poll indicates how tough he'll be to take down this fall.

The survey was conducted among 671 likely voters via landline and cellphone interviews, and has a margin of error of 4 points.

A proposed Bond Issue and Tax Levy are headed to the upcoming November 4, 2014 ballot.

The Cleveland Municipal School District like most school districts needs additional revenue to support improving school buildings and facility sites.

A proposed Bond Issue and Tax Levy are headed to the upcoming November 4, 2014 ballot. Tuesday, September 02, 2014 Shelvie Polls released the following polling results:

Fifty-two percent (52%) of likely voters disapprove of the proposed bond issue and tax levy. Thirty-four percent (34%) approve while fourteen percent (14%) remain undecided according to a Shelvie poll conducted August 25th to August 27th , 2014.

Method

The survey sampled 2179 likely adult voters in Cleveland, Ohio and produced a ± 3 margin of error. 100% of the surveys were conducted over the phone.

Survey question

Do you approve or disapprove of the Cleveland Municipal School District Proposed Bond Issue and Tax Levy?

Yes 34%
No 52%
Not sure 14%


NOTE: Margin of Sampling Error, +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence

For more information email Shelviepolls@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ShelviePolls

Thirty percent (30%) of likely voters would vote against the recall a

Thirty-Five percent (35%) of Richmond Heights voters are not sure to recall Mayor Headen.

A new Shelvie Polls survey shows that, if the recall election was held, thirty-four percent (34%) of likely voters would vote to recall Mayor Headen and remove her from office.

Thirty percent (30%) of likely voters would vote against the recall and let her continue to serve as Mayor. However thirty-five percent (35%) of likely voters are not sure to recall the Mayor.

Richmond Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. The population was 10,546 at the 2010 census.

Method

Shelvie Polls conducted a poll August 21 to 23, 2014. The sample size was 2780 adults in Richmond Heights, Ohio with a margin of error ± 3 of likely voters. 100% of surveys for the poll was conducted over the phone.

Survey question

Will you vote yes or no on the question of whether Miesha Headen should be recalled from the office of Richmond Heights Mayor Office?

Yes 30%
No 34%
Not sure 35%

Party Status
30% Democrats
30% Republicans
40% Independents

NOTE: Margin of Sampling Error, +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence

For more information email Shelviepolls@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ShelviePolls.

Americans are dissatisfied

The impact is all too predictable. Three in four Americans are dissatisfied with the way the political system works, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. More than eight in 10 say they trust the government to do the right thing only some of the time, according to a Quinnipiac University poll.

The Pew Research Center recently found that 55 percent of Americans think the current Congress has accomplished less than recent Congresses — a record high. A survey taken at the end of last year by the National Opinion Research Center and the Associated Press found that six in 10 respondents felt generally pessimistic about how their political leaders are chosen.

Cell Phone

The California bill is aimed at curbing cellphone theft by requiring all smartphones sold in the state home to 37 million people to come equipped with a feature that allows users to remotely wipe their personal data and make the devices inoperable.

St. Louis County Police

The St. Louis County Police Department will no longer be involved in the tense situation in Ferguson, Mo., that has seen days of protests following the killing of an unarmed teenage black male by police, a congressman said Thursday.

Rep. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.), whose district includes the northern St. Louis suburb, told Bloomberg that Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) will make the announcement Thursday morning.

"The governor just called me and he's on his way to St. Louis now to announce he's taking St. Louis County Police out of the situation," Clay told Bloomberg. He did not specify who would take over.

St. Louis field office FBI agents and those with the U.S. Attorneys' Office are working with the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division on the investigation, Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday.

Police in the area have been criticized for what many view as a militarized response to the protests there.

The governor was also criticized Wednesday evening for being seemingly absent while protests escalated, with police reportedly firing tear gas and smoke bombs at protesters. Several people were arrested.

“The worsening situation in Ferguson is deeply troubling, and does not represent who we are as Missourians or as Americans," Nixon later said in a statement released in the early hours Thursday.

Ferguson

FERGUSON, Mo. — For the past week in Ferguson, reporters have been using the McDonald’s a few blocks from the scene of Michael Brown’s shooting as a staging area. Demonstrations have blown up each night nearby. But inside there’s WiFi and outlets, so it’s common for reporters to gather there.

That was the case Wednesday. My phone was just about to die, so as I charged it, I used the time to respond to people on Twitter and do a little bit of a Q&A since I wasn’t out there covering the protests.

As I sat there, many armed officers came in — some who were dressed as normal officers, others who were dressed with more gear.

Meet the Press

Chuck Todd, the NBC News political director and chief White House correspondent, is likely to succeed David Gregory as moderator of 'Meet the Press,' with the change expected to be announced in coming weeks, top political sources told POLITICO's Mike Allen.

The move is an effort by NBC News President Deborah Turness to restore passion and insider cred to a network treasure that has been adrift since the death of Tim Russert in 2008. Gregory, his replacement, suffered from low ratings and, in recent months, an onslaught of negative press reports.

While Todd is not a classic television performer, sources said his NBC bosses have been impressed by his love of the game, which brings with it authenticity, sources and a loyal following among newsmakers and political junkies.

More from Mike Allen's initial report in Playbook:

DMC

#Columbus promotes itself as a fast-growing swing city in the hard-fought battleground of Ohio. After the Republican National Committee selected Cleveland to host its convention, the mayor cautioned that Democrats risked losing Ohio in 2016 if they didn't pick Columbus.

2low Congress

In a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Tuesday, the paper found, for the first time in 25 years, that a majority of people disapprove of the job their own Congress member is doing. Clement said while people might have said Congress as a whole is doing a poor job, voters are "not willing to let their own Congress member off the hook anymore."

But the ill will toward Congress and President Barack Obama is nothing new, said Sarah Dutton, director of surveys for CBS News, which found near-historic lows for each party's approval rating in its poll last week.

"It's been low for quite some time," Dutton said of Congress' approval rating. "However, it's now lower than it was in previous midterm elections."

So what does this mean come November? Across the board, pollsters note that it throws turnout levels into question. Jensen said anger toward their own candidates coupled with anger for the opposition leaves little for voters to get particularly excited about. Two groups that could see an impact, however, are independent voters and third-party candidates.

What is WaterGate?

At the time, it must have all seemed unforgettable: the endless revelations of wrongdoing, the painful congressional investigation and, finally, the soft black-and-white image of Richard Nixon resigning the presidency.

But ask today's students about the events of Watergate 40 years ago and odds are that many have never heard of the scandal, or, at best, are vaguely aware that something happened once that lives on in a suffix attached to the occasional controversy.

She called me ‘poor white trash’ and ‘white b****’,”

A white, male former Maryland #teacher has won a $350,000 jury award after claiming that schools officials retaliated against him because of his race.

Jon Everhart alleged in his lawsuit against the Prince George’s County school board that a black principal forced him out of his job because he is white.

“Justice was served,” Everhart said. “I do feel as though I have been vindicated.”

Everhart, 65, speaking by phone from Ohio after the verdict in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, said he faced years of racial harassment from the principal at Largo High School, who he said repeatedly told staffers and students that she planned to fire him.

“She called me ‘poor white trash’ and ‘white b****’,” Everhart said of the principal, Angelique Simpson-Marcus, who leads the 1,100-student school. “Her behavior was so outlandish.”

Play by the rules

Education is historically considered to be the thing that levels the playing field, capable of lifting up the less advantaged and improving their chances for success.

"Play by the rules, work hard, apply yourself and do well in school, and that will open doors for you," is how Karl Alexander, a Johns Hopkins University sociologist, puts it.

But a study published in June suggests that the things that really make the difference — between prison and college, success and failure, sometimes even life and death — are money and family.

Alexander is one of the authors of "The Long Shadow," which explored this scenario: Take two kids of the same age who grew up in the same city — maybe even the same neighborhood. What factors will make the difference for each?

To find the answer, the Hopkins researchers undertook a massive study. They followed nearly 800 kids in Baltimore — from first grade until their late-20s.

They found that a child's fate is in many ways fixed at birth — determined by family strength and the parents' financial status.

The kids who got a better start — because their parents were married and working — ended up better off. Most of the poor kids from single-parent families stayed poor.

Just 33 children — out of nearly 800 — moved from the low-income to high-income bracket. And a similarly small number born into low-income families had college degrees by the time they turned 28.

We traveled to Baltimore to spend time with two of the people whom Alexander and the team tracked for nearly three decades. Here are their stories:

Hawaii election in 2 days

Hawaii is two days away from its biggest Democratic primary election in a generation. It also happens to be bracing for a pair of hurricanes, the first of which is set to make landfall in a matter of hours.

The storms are 11th hour wild cards in what's been an historic primary season in the Aloha State. Competitive races for both the U.S. Senate and governor will determine the future of the Democratic Party in Hawaii, which has long been divided along generational, ethnic and political lines.

Thursday election

The fate of several Tennessee incumbents hangs in the balance in Thursday’s Republican primary, but it may not be Sen. Lamar Alexander (R) who is sweating the most.

The veteran politician is expected to easily survive a Tea Party challenge from state Rep. Joe Carr (R), who never really caught on with the national conservative base. But two other House members may not be as lucky and could end up in the nail-biters of the night.

Embattled Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.) looked like a goner, under fire amid a past abortion scandal that only came to light two years ago. State Republicans would like to see state Sen. Jim Tracy oust the incumbent and rid them of an unnecessary headache, but in the final stretch the race has been closer in DesJarlais’s favor than many anticipated.

Two-term Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) faces a rematch with Weston Wamp, son of the district’s former congressman. The 27 year-old has actually been running to the incumbent’s left and making a plea for Democratic voters, an unusual move in a GOP primary.

Here’s your cheat sheet for what to watch when polls close across the Volunteer State at 7 p.m. ET.

Nation high

D.C. residents will vote in November on whether to legalize marijuana use in the nation’s capital after elections officials voted Wednesday to place the question on the ballot.

The three-member D.C. Board of Elections voted unanimously Wednesday morning to approve the ballot initiative, certifying that activists gathered the tens of thousands of voter signatures necessary to qualify for the ballot.

Several of those activists attended Wednesday’s meeting and cheered the vote, which puts D.C. further down the path of joining Colorado and Washington as the only places in the nation where marijuana possession and cultivation is fully legal.

“In a democracy, the voice of the people should be heard,” said Malik Burnett, a doctor and leader of the D.C. Cannabis Coalition, an umbrella activist group that said it collected more than 57,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot.

Tamara Robinson, a board spokeswoman, said the petition, turned in July 17, had 27,688 valid signatures. To qualify for the November ballot, 22,600 signatures were required.

War on whites

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) on Tuesday defended his claim that Democrats are waging a “war on whites,” saying that people could “lawfully discriminate” against the group under current federal law.

“It is repugnant for Democrats time after time after time to resort to cries of racism to divide Americans and drive up voter turn out,” Brooks said in an interview with USA Today. “That is exactly what they are doing in order to drive up their vote and they are doing it when there is no racial discrimination involved.

“If you look at current federal law, there is only one skin color that you can lawfully discriminate against. That’s Caucasians — whites,” he added.

Brooks said he stands by his statement Monday in which he accused Democrats of launching a “war on whites.”

“I want Democrats held accountable ... if Americans want a political party that regularly stokes unfounded racial fears, well then vote Democrat,” he told USA Today.

In an interview Monday on conservative radio host Laura Ingraham’s show, Brooks said Democrats are using the current immigration debate to attack white constituents.

“This is a part of the war on whites that’s being launched by the Democratic Party. And the way in which they’re launching this war is by claiming that whites hate everybody else,” he said during the interview.

Primary elections

After a brief lull, primary elections are kicking back into gear Tuesday in four states. It's the start of a busy stretch of important races between now and Labor Day.

Voters in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington head to the polls. There's a lot going on.

Below we break down the four most important things you should watch. As always, stay tuned for results this evening right here on Post Politics.

1. Will Sen. Pat Roberts get past his tea party challenger?



Roberts has made a couple of big mistakes, but he is favored to win. It all started with a February New York Times story revealing the senator pays rent to supporters to stay with them when he's in Kansas, instead of residing at his own house. The story fueled the kind of "he's lost touch with the state" criticism that dislodged Richard Lugar from the Senate in 2012. (Roberts owns a home suburban Washington.) Even worse, Roberts seemed oblivious to how bad it looked, jokingly telling the Times, "I have full access to the recliner." It didn't help when he remarked in July radio interview, "Every time I get an opponent — I mean, every time I get a chance, I’m home."

But here's the thing: Milton Wolf has not been able to capitalize. Wolf -- a second cousin of President Obama -- has his own problems. The doctor posted graphic X-ray images of gunshot victims on Facebook and made crude jokes about them. He has been outspent nearly 3 to 1. And while he's gotten some help from national tea party groups like the Senate Conservatives Fund, he is hardly the national tea party darling that Chris McDaniel was in Mississippi against Sen. Thad Cochran.

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Jerry Moran (Kan.) didn't sound too worried about Roberts last week in a briefing with reporters. Polls have tightened a bit, but they still mostly show Roberts leading comfortably. This is one of the final chances for the tea party to knock off a sitting senator in a primary this year.

Congress all time low

The number of Americans who approve of their own representative in Congress has reached an all-time low, according to a poll released Tuesday.

In a Washington Post-ABC News poll, 51 percent of Americans said that they disapprove of the way their member of Congress is "handling his or her job." Forty-one percent approve of how their member handles his or her work, the lowest approval rating that The Washington Post and ABC News has found. This is the first time in 25 years that the number of Americans who disapprove of their own Congress member has risen over 50 percent, according to the Post.

Still, Democrats are seeing more favorable ratings than Republicans. Of those polled, 49 percent said that they have a "favorable impression of the Democratic Party," while only 35 percent answered the same for the GOP.

These results come on the same day that voters in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington will be casting their ballots for midterm election primaries. On June 15, a Gallup poll found that only 15 percent of Americans approve of the way Congress is handling its job, with a plurality answering that the solution for fixing the legislative branch would be to clear house.

This poll was conducted July 30-Aug. 3 among 1,029 people and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Move on!

Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel (R) demanded that the state Republican Party overturn Sen. Thad Cochran's June primary victory and declare him the winner in a Monday press conference.

"They asked us to put up or shut up. Here we are. Here we are with the evidence," McDaniel declared before yielding the podium to his lawyer, who said that the state party should overturn the election's results because of allegations of crossover voting from Democrats, many of them African-American. Cochran won the June 24 runoff election by 7,667 votes.

"We anticipate that after they review the challenge that they'll see that Chris McDaniel clearly won the Republican vote in the runoff," said McDaniel attorney Mitch Tyner. "Chris McDaniel clearly won the runoff by 25,000 votes. ... We're not asking for a new election. We're simply asking that the Republican Party actually recognize the person who won the runoff election."

Tyner brandished a binder which he claimed outlined all the voters the McDaniel campaign says did or may have broken the law by voting in the GOP primary runoff after earlier voting in the Democratic primary, arguing there were more than 15,000 votes that should be thrown out.

While McDaniel's lawyer demanded a public hearing from the state Republican Executive Committee next Tuesday, he did not walk through what the actual violations were.

McDaniel also took a shot at Cochran's campaign, accusing them of race-baiting in the primary. Cochran's allies made explicit appeals to black Democrats to have them cross over in the primary.

"There is no place in the Republican Party for those that would race-bait," he said.

A number of Republicans have accused McDaniel of race-baiting as well following his targeting of black crossover votes. McDaniel has been refusing for weeks to concede the race.

GOP

Ron Fournier spoke an objective truth yesterday on Fox News Sunday. “The fastest growing bloc in this country thinks the Republican Party hates them,” the National Journal writer said to Michael Needham, chief executive of Heritage Action for America. “This party, your party, cannot be the party of the future beyond November, if you’re seen as the party of white people.” Fournier didn’t break any new ground with that statement. The ballyhooed and then ignored GOP autopsy said pretty much the same thing. If the Republican Party doesn’t broaden its reach to people of color, Hispanics in particular, it is doomed as a national party.

But Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) begged to differ. When he was asked by Laura Ingraham today to react to Fournier’s remark, he threw down the gauntlet.

Brooks: This is a part of the war on whites that’s being launched by the Democratic Party. And the way in which they’re launching this war is by claiming that whites hate everybody else. It’s a part of the strategy that Barack Obama implemented in 2008, continued in 2012, where he divides us all on race, on sex, greed, envy, class warfare, all those kinds of things. Well that’s not true. Okay?
You know you’ve vaulted over a line when even a firebrand conservative talker like Ingraham feels compelled to call you out. Good for her for doing so, even though I disagree with her blanket race-card accusation. Anyway, Brooks’s sense of being aggrieved, this surreal notion that whites are under siege by everyone else, is worthy of a thousand side-eyes. Jonathan Chait at New York magazine puts Brooks’s affront to history in its proper perspective today.

White racial victimization is a concept as old as racism itself. White reactionaries in the 19th century imagined that abolishing slavery would turn white people themselves into slaves, and the concept of white subjugation was transferred into such things as black suffrage, civil rights, and so on. The war on whites has raged continuously in the right-wing mind for more than two centuries.
“You can’t call someone ugly and expect them to go to the prom with you,” former House majority leader Dick Armey told the drafters of the GOP autopsy. “We’ve chased the Hispanic voter out of his natural home.” And Brooks is an example of why they won’t be coming back anytime soon.

Election Aug 5 2014

WILL YOU VOTE FOR THE LYNDHURST INCOME TAX INCREASE?:

According to a a poll of more than 1,800 adults in the city of 14,000 — 54 percent will.

More than a quarter said they were undecided and 18 percent disapproved when Shelvie Polls asked residents earlier this month. If voters pass the 0.5-percent increase on August 5, the income tax rate would increase to 2 percent.

Change

Leading from the front is important. But an individual leader cannot implement change alone.

Poll standards

The leading organization representing the nation's pollsters criticized CBS News and the New York Times on Friday for releasing results of a nationwide poll the survey-researchers organization said was conducted using an unproven methodology.

Last Sunday, the two news organizations unveiled their "Battleground Tracker," an online survey updated each month. The poll -- conducted by Internet pollster YouGov -- interviewed more than 100,000 people nationwide, the news organizations said, allowing them to project results for each Senate race in the country.

The results were featured on CBS's "Face the Nation," and the New York Times "Upshot" data-driven vertical published multiple entries about the survey. The first edition of the "Battleground Tracker" showed Republicans leading in 51 Senate races, which prompted The Upshot to project that Republicans had a 60 percent chance of winning control of the Senate.

The American Association for Public Opinion Research's statement on Friday criticized CBS and the Times for using a survey method that has "little grounding in theory" and for a lack of transparency.

"[M]any of the details required to honestly assess the methodology remain undisclosed," according to the AAPOR statement, issued under the organization's letterhead and signed by president Michael Link. "This may be an isolated incident with the Times / CBS News providing more information on this effort in the coming weeks. If not, it is a disappointing precedent being set by two of our leading media institutions."

CBS News elections director Anthony Salvanto disputed that charge, saying in a statement that CBS disclosed the methodology for the study "in great detail."

"Battleground Tracker is a pioneering project that delivers a comprehensive look at the electorate for viewers and readers in a manner that has never been seen in midterms before," said Salvanto. "As always, the methodology is available in great detail along with our findings at cbsnews.com. The Battleground Tracker model represents another example of the rich history of industry-wide innovations from CBS News."

The two news organizations issued a joint statement defending the survey.

"The New York Times and CBS News are proud to continue our long history of presenting new and methodologically rigorous analyses to our readers and viewers," the statement says. "Our findings and methods for the new Battleground Tracker were laid out in great detail for all to see, and the underlying methodology is already well-known to, and widely used in, the survey research and scholarly communities. Moreover, both The New York Times and CBS News have successfully used online panel data in past projects. We remain committed to, and on the forefront of, the highest standards of transparency and data collection[.] Battleground Tracker provides yet another example of both."

AAPOR also hit the Times individually for abandoning their standards to report results of the YouGov study. In the past, Times reporters were prohibited by an internal policy from reporting results of polls conducted among web respondents who were not randomly selected to participate in the survey.

An update to the Times' polling standards on Monday said: "The world of polling is currently in the midst of significant change, and The Times has begun a process to review its polling standards. While the process is ongoing, the paper will be making individual decisions about which polls meet Times standards and specifically how they should be used. As technology changes, we expect there will be multiple methods for capturing public opinion; we also fully expect that there will continue to be a proliferation of polls that do not meet our standards."

But to Link, the AAPOR president, that sounded like a complete evisceration of the Times' standards.

"This means no standards are currently in place," Link wrote. "It is unclear why the decision was made to pull the existing standards before the new ones are developed, vetted and published. Yes, all responsible institutions need to review their standards periodically, making appropriate changes as technologies and methodologies change. However, standards need to be in place at all times precisely to avoid the 'we know it when we see it (or worse yet, 'prefer it')' approach, which often gives expediency and flash far greater weight than confidence and veracity."

New York Times Upshot editor David Leonhardt did not respond to an email seeking comment. Earlier this week, he addressed similar criticisms of the YouGov methodology in an email conversation with POLITICO -- citing YouGov's similar project in 2012 with CBS News, a project with which the Times wasn't involved but studied closely.

"We remain skeptical about many online polls, but YouGov is clearing a high bar in terms of transparency. That's crucial for survey work, especially a newer form," he said.

(POLITICO commissions online polling using probability-based sampling, not the opt-in panels that YouGov used for this study.)

I quit !

In a surprised move, Rep. Eric Cantor says he will resign from Congress on August 18 and has requested a special election to replace him, according to a report late Thursday.

The Virginia Republican told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that he has called on Gov. Terry McAuliffe to set up a special election for his 7th congressional district seat so that his replacement can begin immediately after the election and not when the 114th Congress starts in January.

Cantor previously said he would serve his full term.

"I want to make sure that the constituents in the 7th District will have a voice in what will be a very consequential lame-duck session," Cantor told the Times-Dispatch. "That way he will also have seniority, and that will help the interests of my constituents [because] he can be there in that consequential lame-duck session," he added.

Cantor lost his seat in a shocking primary upset to political novice Dave Brat.

In his last speech as majority leader on Thursday, he called serving in Congress "the privilege of a lifetime."

The congressman also told the Virginia paper that he hopes the Republican Brat will defeat Democrat Jack Trammell in the upcoming election. He also said he regretted that Congress moves slowly. "I wish that Washington would act quicker," he said.

Sorry 4

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan has apologized to Senate Intelligence Committee leaders after an internal CIA probe found that agency officials improperly snooped into computers being used by Senate staffers.

In a statement Thursday, CIA spokesman Dean Boyd said an Office of Inspector General report concluded that 'some CIA employees acted in a manner inconsistent with the common understanding reached between' the Senate and the CIA about computer systems used to produce documents in connection with a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into CIA detention and interrogation practices.

'Director Brennan was briefed on the CIA OIG's findings,' Boyd said. 'The director subsequently informed the SSCI chairman and vice chairman of the findings and apologized to them for such actions by CIA officers as described in the OIG report.'

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said the findings vindicated her assertions earlier this year that the actions constituted an improper intrusion by the executive branch into congressional oversight.

"The investigation confirmed what I said on the Senate floor in March -- CIA personnel inappropriately searched Senate Intelligence Committee computers in violation of an agreement we had reached, and I believe in violation of the constitutional separation of powers,' Feinstein said in a statement. 'Director Brennan apologized for these actions and submitted the IG report to an accountability board. These are positive first steps. This IG report corrects the record and it is my understanding that a declassified report will be made available to the public shortly."

I'm sorry 4

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan has apologized to Senate Intelligence Committee leaders after an internal CIA probe found that agency officials improperly snooped into computers being used by Senate staffers.

In a statement Thursday, CIA spokesman Dean Boyd said an Office of Inspector General report concluded that 'some CIA employees acted in a manner inconsistent with the common understanding reached between' the Senate and the CIA about computer systems used to produce documents in connection with a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into CIA detention and interrogation practices.

'Director Brennan was briefed on the CIA OIG's findings,' Boyd said. 'The director subsequently informed the SSCI chairman and vice chairman of the findings and apologized to them for such actions by CIA officers as described in the OIG report.'

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said the findings vindicated her assertions earlier this year that the actions constituted an improper intrusion by the executive branch into congressional oversight.

"The investigation confirmed what I said on the Senate floor in March -- CIA personnel inappropriately searched Senate Intelligence Committee computers in violation of an agreement we had reached, and I believe in violation of the constitutional separation of powers,' Feinstein said in a statement. 'Director Brennan apologized for these actions and submitted the IG report to an accountability board. These are positive first steps. This IG report corrects the record and it is my understanding that a declassified report will be made available to the public shortly."

Less than a week before the special election, more than half of Lyndhurst

LYNDHURST, Ohio — Less than a week before the special election, more than half of Lyndhurst residents want to approve a half-percent income tax increase, according to a Shelvie Communications poll.

Lyndhurst would collect $2 million annually if income taxes are increased from 1.5 to 2 percent, in the Aug. 5 election.

Since the city's 50-percent tax credit won't change, both Lyndhurst workers and residents will pay the increase. Those who earn $60,000 annually will pay $300 more to Lyndhurst.

"Fifty-four percent saying they're likely to vote for it is a positive step in the right direction for our community," Councilman Lane Schlessel said. "If someone is still undecided they should reach out to their ward councilman and ask the questions they have.

"Just to vote against it without getting the facts isn't doing the community a service."

Shelvie polled 1,860 of the 14,000 adults in Lyndhurst earlier this month. More than a quarter of residents said they were undecided, and 18 percent disapproved of the tax hike. About three-quarters of the respondents were women.

In an effort to promote the new company, Shelvie Communications has conducted and paid for polls on several local issues throughout the past month.


Lyndhurst planned to pay the Melamed consulting firm $30,000 to communicate with residents about the income tax proposal. Officials held two telephone town halls and a breakfast.

A resident group is leading another campaign to promote the issue.

Schlessel said one of the most common questions he's received has been from senior citizens asking whether the income tax increase will affect their pensions and Social Security, but the tax is on earned income only.

"Residents who aren't engaged just look at the word tax and they confused that with the school levy they just passed," he said. "It has nothing to do with that. It's a totally separate ballot issue.

"The city hasn't put a tax issue on the ballot in decades."

Finance Director Mary Kovalchik predicts the city will spend $2 million of its reserves this year and will not be able to maintain police and fire services come 2015 without the tax increase.

State cuts to the Local Government Fund; the loss of the estate tax, which generated $1.4 million for Lyndhurst last year and is being phased out by the state; and declining property values contributed to the city's financial state, Kovalchik said.

Kovalchik predicts the city will collect $762,000 less in property taxes in 2014 than it did in 2009. Cuts from the state have cost Lyndhurst about $683,000, she said, and she expects the loss of the estate tax to reduce revenues by $500,000.

Get Out & Vote this November

A report last week from the Center for the Study of the American Electorate had troubling news for both parties: turnout in the 25 states that have already held statewide primaries this cycle has declined about 3.5 percent from 2010, down to 14.8 percent of the voting-age population.

The report also says turnout in 15 of the 25 states hit record lows, and that only three had higher turnout this cycle than in 2010.

For Republicans, they were hoping good primary numbers would translate into increased enthusiasm for the party, and possibly signal a growing GOP wave.

Right now, neither appears to be true.

Both Republican and Democratic operatives said they weren’t alarmed by the findings of the report, noting that it’s difficult to extrapolate primary turnout to the general election campaign and that the comparison to 2010 was imperfect.

That year saw a GOP wave and record-high turnout in a number of cases, but Republicans say present-day comparisons don’t work. Many states that had competitive statewide primaries in 2010 didn’t this year, or vice versa, explaining the shift.

Michael McDonald, a political science professor at George Mason University, said that looking at the overall decline in turnout outlined in the report was an imprecise gauge. He noted that the individual parties saw bumps in turnout in states where there were particularly contentious statewide primaries, like North Carolina or Nebraska for Republicans and New Mexico for Democrats.

“Where we do see higher participation in primaries is where we see competitive elections,” he said.

That’s because, McDonald noted, voters need to see “a real reason, a real choice between the candidates offered there” — a reason to get excited about the election.

And that’s where, operatives of both parties acknowledged, the report’s findings may be problematic for 2014.

Mitch Stewart, Obama’s former battleground states director, said the lack of engagement at the primary level seems to be a systemic problem.

“It’s a symptom of our politics today. It’s hard to look at Congress and be super jazzed about voting,” he said.

But even there, the GOP has an advantage. A Pew poll out last week showed 45 percent who said they planned to vote Republican reported being more enthusiastic about voting this year than in years prior, while only 37 percent of those who supported a Democratic candidate said the same.

And GOP operatives note that in other states soon facing a vote, like Tennessee next week, early voting is on the rise — an encouraging sign they see as indicative of Republican enthusiasm this fall. An operative engaged in House races pointed in particular to GOP turnout in the special election in Florida’s 13th District, when more than 40 percent of Republicans went to the polls, as evidence of strong enthusiasm from their party.

The survey also showed that Democrats suffered a higher drop-off from 2010 than Republicans. Democratic turnout went from 8.7 percent of eligible voters in 2010 to 6.1 percent this year. Republican turnout dropped from 9.6 percent in 2010 to 8.2 percent.

McDonald said that’s largely because most of the action has been taking place on the other side, and that Democrats will tune back in once there’s a reason to.

“We haven’t really seen Democrats have a reason to be interested in the election yet, because we’re not close to the fall election and their primaries haven’t been contested,” he said.

Still, Democratic base constituencies become disinterested during the midterms at higher rates than GOP-leaning groups, which is why Democrats have a tougher fight to get their voters out this fall.

U.S. border!

Nearly 70 percent of Americans believe the undocumented Central American children entering along the U.S.-Mexico border should be treated as refugees, a new poll shows.

According to a poll released Tuesday by the Public Religion Research Institute, 69 percent of those surveyed believe U.S. authorities should treat the children as refugees and allow them to stay in the country if it is determined it is not safe for them to return to their home country. Twenty-seven percent of Americans say the children should be treated as illegal immigrants and should be deported.

Seventy-one percent also say they mostly or completely agree that the U.S. should provide refuge and protection for all people who come to the U.S. if they are fleeing serious danger in their home country, the poll found. But 59 percent of Americans say they mostly or completely agree with the statement that the allowing the children to stay will increase illegal immigration.

DC & Guns

A federal judge Tuesday put on hold the decision he issued over the weekend banning enforcement of a key law Washington, D.C. police and federal law enforcement officials use to control the possession of handguns in the nation's capital.

U.S. District Court Judge Frederick Scullin Jr. stayed his earlier ruling for 90-days after the gun rights advocates who filed the case agreed to that length of delay in order to allow the D.C. Council to try to revise the law to comply with the judge's decision. Laywers for the city had asked for a delay of 180 days to allow for an appeal and/or action by the D.C. Council.

Scullin's ruling released on Saturday held one of D.C.'s main gun control laws unconstitutional and ordered that the city not arrest people for possession of guns legally registered in other jurisdictions. The decision caused concern among law enforcement officials who were faced with no clear basis to arrest someone found in the vicinity of most government buildings in possession of a handgun.

Officials said Monday that they had other authority to arrest people entering Congressional office buildings, the Capitol, or its grounds, with weapons, even though police have often used the D.C. law to charge such individuals. Another law bans entering other types of federal buildings with a weapon, but can only be enforced if a conspicuous sign at each building entrance makes the legal ban clear or if the person entering can be proven to know about the law.

Scullin's new order (posted here) puts the prior ruling finding the D.C. gun control law unconstitutional on hold until October 22. In addition, he made clear that his prior order only applied to handguns, so should not stand as a basis for anyone carrying other types of weapons claiming they are doing so legally.

'The Court notes that it sees no need to clarify its decision. The only issue before the Court was whether the District of Columbia's complete ban on the carrying of handguns in public was unconstitutional. Thus, the Court's injunction clearly applied only to handguns and not any other type of deadly dangerous weapon,' Scullin wrote.

Robert Kilo 46%

Ohio State District 10 Representative Fall Behind in Hypothetical Ballot

Question 1: If the election for State Representative were being held today, and the candidates were Robert Kilo the Independent and Bill Patmon the Democrat, for whom would you vote?

Robert Kilo 46%….. 31% Bill Patmon…… 23% Not sure

Question 2. Do you approve or disapprove of President Barack Obama’s job performance.

47% Approve ….. 41% Disapprove ….. 12% Not sure

Shelvie Polls surveyed 1,518 (10 House District) voters between July 21-24, 2014. 100% of surveys for the poll were conducted over the phone.

NOTE: Margin of Sampling Error, +/- 4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

For more information email Shelviepolls@gmail.com
or follow us on Twitter Shelviepolls.

This poll was not paid for or authorized by any campaign.

Federal Judge has ruled!

WASHINGTON -- The District of Columbia's #ban on carrying handguns outside the home is unconstitutional, a federal judge has ruled.

In a 19-page ruling made public Saturday, U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Scullin concluded that the Second Amendment gives people the right to carry a gun outside the home for self-defense.

The lawsuit challenging the city's ban on carrying handguns outside the home was filed in 2009 by three District of Columbia residents, a New Hampshire resident and the Washington state-based Second Amendment Foundation. It came shortly after the city rewrote its gun laws following a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down the city's 32-year-old ban on handguns in 2008.

New rules allowed residents to keep guns in their homes but required that they be registered. Gun owners now have to take a safety class, be photographed and fingerprinted and re-register their weapons every three years. Those requirements have also been challenged in court but were upheld by a federal judge in May.

In finding the city's ban on carrying handguns outside the home unconstitutional, Scullin cited two U.S. Supreme Court cases, including the 2008 case that struck down the city's handgun ban and a 2010 case involving Chicago's handgun ban.

Scullin, who was appointed by President George H.W. Bush and is a former Army colonel, wrote that following those decisions, "there is no longer any basis on which this court can conclude that the District of Columbia's total ban on the public carrying of ready-to-use handguns outside the home is constitutional under any level of scrutiny."

Alan Gura, the lawyer who represents the group challenging the ban, said Sunday he was "very pleased with the decision."

Ted Gest, a spokesman for the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, which defended the city's ban, said the city is studying the opinion and its options. Those include appealing the judge's ruling but also asking the judge to stop his ruling from going into effect

More Cops

51% Say There Aren't Enough Cops in America

Most Americans continue to believe crime is a serious problem in America, and half think there aren’t enough police officers to stop it.

Thirty-seven percent (37%) of American Adults say crime in their community has increased over the past year, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Just 11% say the level of crime where they live has gone down, while 47% say it has stayed about the same.

Women problems in NFL

The #NFL sent a message with its latest disciplinary move, suspending Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice because of a domestic incident that it deems to be a violation of its personal conduct policy. Unfortunately, the recipients of Commissioner Roger Goodell’s message are women.

Rice was suspended the first two games of the season after a February incident in which he allegedly knocked his then-fiancée unconscious in the elevator of an Atlantic City casino. The incident was captured on disturbing video and Rice entered a not-guilty plea to a third-degree charge of aggravated assault. He avoided trial by being accepted into a pretrial intervention program in May. The following month, he met with Goodell, who can use the league’s personal-conduct policy to suspend players even if they are not charged or convicted of a crime.

The suspension sparked an instant and heated debate over how the league dishes out punishment, given that drug violations typically draw longer suspensions. It particularly resonated poorly with women, sending the wrong message just as NFL viewership among them is at a high and when the league is, once again, openly courting the audience of women and their financial clout. At a time when some women employed as cheerleaders are suing teams in several cities over low wages, the suspension especially strikes another oddly off-key note for a league that has always been better at PR than this.

In fact, the NFL would do well to remember that women haven’t always flocked to its games. There was a time when the league had to do damage control, especially after Rae Carruth of the Carolina Panthers was sent to prison for his role in the shooting death of his then-pregnant girlfriend in 1999. The league embarked on an image makeover, doing things like having players hand out roses to women at breast cancer walks. Now, in addition to clothing specifically designed for and marketed to women (yes, there’s a Ray Rice women’s jersey), there’s a league-wide initiative to raise breast cancer awareness every October. Yet recent incidents involving Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy, Arizona Cardinals linebacker Daryl Washington and Rice are troubling.

Hit list

#Teachers unions are struggling to protect their political clout, but as the midterm elections approach, they're fighting back with their most popular asset: the teachers themselves.

Backed by tens of millions in cash and new data mining tools that let them personalize pitches to voters, the unions are sending armies of educators to run a huge get-out-the-vote effort aimed at reversing the red tide that swept Republicans into power across the country in 2010.

The unions have plenty of money: They spent $69 million on state races in 2010 and are likely to top that this year. But as they gear up for the most intense and focused mobilization efforts they have ever attempted, they believe it's their members who will give them an edge. Americans may be frustrated with public schools and wary of unions, but polls still show respect and admiration for teachers.


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It's over

Businessman #David Perdue (R) has won his hard-fought Senate primary, setting up a general-election battle against charity executive Michelle Nunn (D).

The Associated Press has called the race for Perdue, who led Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) by 50.7 percent to 49.3 percent with 93 of precincts reporting.

Perdue pulled off his narrow win by running hard as the outsider, positioning himself from the beginning of the primary as the only non-politician in the race.

He stuck with that message throughout the primary runoff, hammering Kingston as a career politician and criticizing him for the more than two decades he's been in Congress.

Kingston responded by painting Perdue as wealthy and out-of-touch, ripping into his business record. Those attacks will likely be reprised by Democrats this fall.

Perdue, a self-funding candidate and the former CEO of Dollar General and Reebok, took first place in the crowded multi-candidate May primary, leading Kingston by double digits. But Kingston came out fighting, winning the endorsements of many of his congressional colleagues as well as some Tea Party activists.

"Congratulations to David Perdue on his victory tonight in Georgia," National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) said in a statement. "David's experience in the private sector will be put to good use in Washington, and his firsthand experience in creating thousands of good paying jobs will help Georgians."

Low turn out!

WASHINGTON -- More than half the states to hold primary elections so far have seen record-low turnouts, according to a nonpartisan survey of voter rolls released Monday. That perhaps is a sign of widespread apathy within both political parties ahead of November's midterm elections.

Of almost 123 million voters who were eligible to cast ballots in primaries, 18 million have done so, and states with same-day voter registration actually saw their turnout rates drop, according to the Center for the Study of the American Electorate. Despite heavy campaign spending that is poised to make history, 15 of the 25 states that have held statewide primary elections each reported a record low percentage of voters who cast ballots.

The low turnout comes amid high stakes. Republicans are driving for the six-seat gain required to control the Senate.

Nonetheless, Democrats saw a 29 percent decline from 2010's primaries, the 11th consecutive midterm elections to see a drop in participation.

Republicans posted a 15 percent decline in participation from 2010. But their rate was closer to historical norms after tea party enthusiasm in 2010 led to a turnout spike.

Taxation w/o Representation

President Obama said Monday that as a Washington, D.C., resident he supported statehood for the District of Columbia’s 650,000 inhabitants.

"I'm in D.C., so I'm for it," Obama said Monday at a town-hall event to promote his "My Brother's Keeper" program.

"I've long believed that folks in D.C. pay taxes like everybody else. They contribute to the overall well-being of the country like everybody else. They should be represented like everybody else," Obama said

Malaysia

The United States on Friday said it believed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was taken down by a surface-to-air missile from territory controlled by Russian militants battling the Ukrainian government.

President Obama described the incident as a "global wakeup call," suggesting the U.S. is ready to press its partners to put more pressure on Russia to rein in militants operating in Eastern Ukraine.

“This certainly will be a wake up call for Europe and the world that there are consequences to escalating conflict in eastern Ukraine and it is not going to be localized. It is not going to be contained,” Obama said.


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Proposed tax Aug 5 2014

The small Cuyahoga County suburb of Lyndhurst, OH, needs additional revenue to support city services. A proposed .5 percent income tax hike is headed to the polls on August 5,2014. Just released July 18 2014 54% likely voters approve of the increase 18% disapprove with 27% are still undecided according to Shelvie Polls conduct July 6 to 8,2014.

Lyndhurst is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, an eastern suburb of Cleveland. The population was 14,001 at the 2010 census.

Method 

Shelvie Poll conducted poll July 6 to 8, 2014. Sample size is 1,860 adults in Lyndhurst,Ohio with a margin of error ± 4 of likely voters. 100% of surveys for the poll were conducted over the phone.


Gender

71% Female 29% Male

Party Status 

30% Democrats 30% Republicans 40% Independents 

NOTE: Margin of Sampling Error, +/- 4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

For more information email Shelviepolls@gmail.com
or follow us on Twitter Shelviepolls

Negro Vote

Chris McDaniel's unsuccessful Mississippi Senate campaign is now accusing allies of renominated Sen. Thad Cochran of "race-baiting" in their efforts to boost the six-term incumbent in last month's GOP runoff, amid reports that the politically-powerful Barbour family helped direct about $145,000 to African-American turnout operations to help Cochran.

$100,000 a speech

Jay Carney just left the White House podium and he's already joined the ranks of George W. Bush, Tom Brokaw and Mike Ditka in one profitable enterprise: lecturing on the private speaking circuit.

The former Obama administration flack signed on this month with the Washington Speakers Bureau, a gig that came with a signing bonus and is likely to yield payments as high as $100,000 per speech to share his personal presidential anecdotes and analysis of the next two election cycles.

As the most recent high-profile person out the West Wing door, Carney can expect to be in high demand with the universities, corporations and trade associations -- the public and private institutions willing to pay for what has become the standard first move of high-ranking staffers.

No thanks ! 80billion dollars not enough!

Rupert Murdoch's company 21st Century Fox unsuccessfully bid $80 #billion for Time Warner last month, the company said in a statement confirming a New York Times report on Wednesday.

"21st Century Fox can confirm that we made a formal proposal to Time Warner last month to combine the two companies,' the statement said. 'The Time Warner Board of Directors declined to pursue our proposal. We are not currently in any discussions with Time Warner.'

The speculation into a possible acquisition attempt started on July 1 after Reuters published a curtain-raiser on the Allen & Co. gathering in Sun Valley, Idaho, one of the many summer summits attended by high-profile media, tech and finance executives.

21st Century Fox first approached Time Warner in early June, according to the Times. But Time Warner, parent company of the Warner Bros. empire, Turner Broadcasting and HBO, wasn't having it.

'Time Warner's board discussed the proposal at length, the people briefed said, and early this month it sent a terse letter rejecting the offer, saying the company was better off remaining independent,' the Times reports.


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School Choice

Why would the federal Department of Justice cite the Civil Rights Act and the specter of segregation to try and block a school choice program where more than nine in 10 participants come from racial minority groups? Or use the Americans with Disabilities Act to claim another school voucher program discriminates against individuals with disabilities, without so much as a single complaint from a student or parent to prove their case?

Yet that's exactly what the Obama administration's Justice Department is doing--taking actions designed to stifle, and even block outright, programs that give children and parents more educational choices. Ironically enough, the DOJ even cited civil rights laws in attempting to deny parents the opportunity to move their children from failing schools--one of the foremost civil rights challenges of our time.

Legal arguments aside, the basic problem is this: Eric Holder, the Obama administration, and vast swathes of the left have forgotten the basic premise of education policy: It's all about the children.

Residents have weighed in on the way Miesha Headen is handling her job as Mayor:

"Do you approve or disapprove of the way Miesha Headen is handling her job as Richmond Heights Mayor?" According to a survey released July 8, 2014.

 

Residents have weighed in on the way Miesha Headen is handling her job as Mayor: Approve 42%, Disapprove 51% and Undecided 7% (Shelvie Polls tracking, 6/24-27).

 

Richmond Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. The population was 10,546 at the 2010 census.

Method 

Shelvie Poll conducted June 24- 27,2014.  Sample size is 1,870 adults in Richmond Heights, Ohio with a margin of error ± 3.5% of likely voters.  100% of surveys for the poll were conducted over the phone.

 

For more information email Shelviepolls@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ShelviePolls.

Aug 5 2014 Special Election

Aug 5 2014 Special Election 

Will Lyndhurst local income tax measure pass August 5?

Do Clevelanders approve of Red Light cameras?

Do Clevelanders approve of Red Light cameras?

Shelvie Communications Poll: Do Clevelanders approve of Red Light cameras?

According to a new Shelvie Communications Poll Clevelanders are not on board with red light cameras.

Sixty-two percent (62%) of Clevelanders Strongly Disapprove of red light cameras while 27% are undecided and only 11% approve of the devices. 

The poll was conducted on June 1st with 15,1746 likely voters. They were interviewed by landline and cell phone, with a margin of error of +/- 3.7 percentage points, the pollsters said.

Richmond Heights likely voters are divided over first term Mayor Miesha Headen

According to a survey released July 7 2014

Richmond Heights likely voters are divided over first term Mayor Miesha Headen. In a recent Shelvie Poll conducted June 24-27, 2014 45% support a recall, 45% don’t support a recall and 10% are undecided. 

Method 

Shelvie Poll conducted June 24- 27,2014. Sample size was 1,737 adults in Richmond Heights, Ohio with a margin of error ± 4%
LV = likely voters. 100% of surveys were conducted over the phone.

For more information email Shelviepolls@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ShelviePolls.

A new poll shows East Cleveland voters are leading toward a merger with the City of Cleveland.

A new poll shows East Cleveland voters are leading toward a merger with the City of Cleveland.

Poll conducted by Shelvie Polls June 26-29, 2014. N=500 East Clevelanders voters with margin of error +/- 3.8%.

A new poll shows East Cleveland voters are leading toward a merger with the City of Cleveland.

The majority of East Cleveland’s voters are leaning toward a possible East Cleveland

and Cleveland merger, according to a survey released July 3rd by Shelvie Polls.

Breaking down that division of support, 55 percent said they feel strongly and that they would vote for a merger while 29 percent replied that they would not. 16 percent of voters said they are undecided.

East Cleveland is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, and was the first suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. The population was 17,843 for the 2010 census.

-Method 

Shelvie Polls surveyed 500 East Cleveland likely registered voters from June 26th to 29th. The margin of error for the survey is +/- 3.8%. 100% of surveys for the poll were conducted over the phone.

For more information email Shelviepolls@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ShelviePolls.

Race is over in Harlem

Rep. Charlie Rangel’s (D-N.Y.) primary challenger, state Sen. Adriano Espaillat, conceded to the congressman on Thursday, a day after the race was called for Rangel.

Voting !!

In its 5-4 Shelby decision, the Supreme Court found that, while Congress has the power to monitor elections for fairness, the VRA formula dictating which states must get federal pre-clearance before altering their voting rules is outdated and therefore invalid. 

Holder!

Why the hell is Eric Holder still around? That's a question many of Barack Obama's political advisers have asked at various points throughout Holder's tumultuous five years at the helm of the Justice Department.

Congressman Rangel

The board of elections is trying to avoid a reprise what happened in 2012, when it came under fire for its handling of a recount between Rangel and Espaillat.