Salt Lake County Mayor Nancy Workman's actions in response to the gasoline scandal have gained her favor in the eyes of many, but a majority of Salt Lake County residents say the scandal as a whole has hurt her chances for re-election this year.
That's according to a Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll conducted by Dan Jones & Associates this week.
Slightly more than half of the respondents (53 percent) said the scandal has definitely or probably hurt Workman's chances, while a significant minority (32 percent) said it probably or definitely helps her. Eleven percent said the scandal doesn't affect their thinking on the election one way or the other.
"I think those numbers are, quite frankly, encouraging" in light of all the hand-wringing going on at the county these days, Workman spokesman Ted Phillips said.
Phillips said that more than anything the mayor wants to fix the problems associated with the county's vehicle-use policies. She appointed an independent panel to that purpose earlier this week.
"The mayor's greatest wish is to have the panel have the opportunity to look into this and bring their recommendations back," he said.
State Democratic Chairman Donald Dunn sees things differently.
"Clearly the majority of people believe that this has put a mark on her administration," he said. "I think what Salt Lake County taxpayers want is accountability and ethical leadership; for someone to stand up and take responsibility."
Workman's Democratic opponent, Peter Corroon, called a news conference earlier this week to decry the "culture of entitlement" he says is rampant in county government.
A Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll conducted May 10-13, just as irregularities in county vehicle use were coming to light, concluded that 40 percent of Salt Lake County residents would vote for Workman, 29 percent for Corroon, and 11 percent for independent candidate Merrill Cook.
Workman has said at various times during the scandal that the buck stops with her and that she is taking steps to prevent such lapses from occurring in the future.
Whatever residents think of Workman (Democratic and Republican responses were substantially the same), a large majority of them don't like vehicle benefits for government officials. Sixty-six percent of poll respondents said elected officials and non-emergency response employees shouldn't get them. Only 29 percent said they should.
And even of those respondents who said officials should get vehicle benefits, the majority said it should be limited to straight mileage reimbursement, rather than use of a car or a car allowance.
Workman has done just that, eliminating cars and car allowances among her staffers and top officials, restricting them to reimbursement for actual mileage driven.
E-mail: aedwards@desnews.com