An unofficial poll of St. Croix voters in Saturday’s Democratic primary showed the slate of Donna Christensen and Basil Ottley comfortably in the lead in the race for the Democrat nomination for governor and lieutenant governor.
The Christensen/Ottley team was supported by 44 percent of the respondents in the poll released Thursday evening by the St. Croix Strategic Development Initiative and St. Croix Post VI.
Christensen/Ottley was supported by 191 of the 432 people taking part. The slate of Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg and Angel "Gito" Torres finished second in the poll, with 119 votes, 27.6 percent of the respondents.
Gregory Francis and his running mate, Patrick Simeon Sprauve, were third at 43 votes, 10 percent of the total. Moleto Smith Jr. and Hubert Frederick were the preference of 36 respondents, 8 percent. And the team of Marvin Pickering and Calford Martin took 29 votes, 6.75 percent of the total.
SEDI took a total of 922 sample votes of people who participated in the June 22 candidate forums sponsored by SEDI, the Christiansted Restaurant & Retailers Association, Our Town Frederiksted and the Democratic Party of the Virgin islands. The poll was also available online at VIVote.us on St. Croix Post.
Polls in which the respondents "self-select" by choosing to go online and take part are statistically less valid than more rigorously conducted polls in which a random sample is selected. An online poll is, in a sense, an honor system, since there’s little those conducting the survey can do to limit the turnout to residents of the territory who are registered to vote.
The news release announcing the poll results did not discuss the methodology by which the poll was conducted.
In the race for the Democratic nomination for delegate to Congress, Shawn Michael Malone holds the lead among the poll’s St. Croix respondents, 73 to 52 over rival Stacey Plaskett. Malone’s vote was 54 percent of the total compared to Plaskett’s 39.15 percent. The remaining 10 preferences went to Emmett Hansen II.
In the race for party nomination for the Senate from St. Croix, 139 responses were recorded. The rankings were:
1) Malcolm McGregor, 42 votes, 30.45 percent
2) Kurt Vialet, 32, 23.7 percent
3) Novelle Francis, 28, 21 percent
4) Neville James, 20, 15 percent
5) Kenneth Gittens, 18, 13.5 percent
6) George Moore, 15, 11 percent
7) Sammuel Sanes, 11, 8.15 percent
8) Collin Hodge, 11, 8.15 percent
9) Paul Arnold Jr., 10, 7.65 percent
10) Carol Burke, 8, 6 percent
11) Troy Mason, 8, 6 percent
12) Diane Capehart, 6, 4.65 percent
13 Omar BU Henry, 5, 4 percent
14) Eugene LaCorbiniere, 5, 4 percent
Since the survey was limited to those who participated in the Frederiksted candidate forum, it does not reflect preferences for St. Thomas and St. John candidates.
