MANCHESTER, NH. May 3, 2021—Manchester mayoral candidate Rich Girard released the results of a survey conducted by his campaign from his website, www.girardformayor.com.  The survey, which was part of Girard’s exploratory effort, was advertised on a variety of social media sites, including several dozen Facebook pages and Twitter, Girard’s community television show and announced in the Union Leader’s City Hall column by Paul Feely.

Girard: Feeling good about survey results

Girard, who was known to more than 88% of the survey takers, said he really wanted to get as much feedback as possible from a broad spectrum of folks to assess what differing people thought about the condition of the city and the coming campaign.  “I wasn’t looking for feedback from an echo chamber or tunes from my own choir,” he said.  “I wanted to identify and come to understand different points of view, whatever they may be.”

The survey asked participants about the following:

    • Their opinion of Mayor Joyce Craig and whether or not she should be reelected.
    • Whether or not they had heard of Girard, and if so, their opinion of him.  
    • Who they would vote for if the election were today.
    • Their opinion of the city’s performance handling schools, crime, homelessness, drugs, protecting neighborhoods, affordable housing and spending and taxes.
    • Regardless of how they believed the city has performed, to prioritize those same seven issues.

“The results give me great hope for my campaign,” said Girard.  “People who were clearly unhappy with where the city is and where it’s going and that included a large percentage of those who identified themselves as supporters of Mayor Craig.”  

Girard acknowledged that the survey wasn’t a scientific poll but said respondents answers provided nearly four hundred pages of answers and suggestions that are still being sorted through.  “People had a lot to say and much of it had valuable insight into what the city could do to make things better.”

The survey was open from April 4, 2021 until April 17, 2021.  The raw results are published at https://www.girardatlarge.com/girardformayor/survey/