Kurt Bills, the representative for District 37B, recently sent a Letter to the Editor into Apple Valley Patch which invites constituents to take his survey on legislative priorities on a variety of topics including the Vikings stadium and K-12 funding. Unfortunately for Representative Bills, the survey questions are leading and, in many cases, show clear favoritism towards the Republican agenda.
From the survey:
2. What is the best way to begin to repay delayed K-12 education funding?
* Reduce spending in order to grow the surplus
* Increase taxes
* Racino revenue
Clearly there are no other alternatives to repaying the delayed K-12 education funding than racinos, increased taxes, and growing the surplus! If Representative Bills really wanted to hear from the general public he would have offered some of his own priorities and allowed for an open ended answer as well. Unfortunately without that open ended option, the three provided appear to point to only one option: reduce spending because few would ever want K-12 education to be tied to racino revenues (immoral, etc) and based on the difficulties in passage of recent levies, increasing taxes is also not going to be an option. This leaves only “reduce spending” as a viable option and the one the Republicans and Bills want to point to as THE solution.
8. How should Minnesota handle health care?
* Go along with the federal program, also known as Obamacare
* Reject the Obamacare plan and pass private-sector reforms that offer Minnesotans more personal freedom and flexibility in healthcare coverage
Bills again posts a very leading question here due to poor word choice and specifically pointing out what he views as the positives in rejecting the plan which is currently in use. First, while you may reject the current federal option, the survey choices probably should have been reworded such as:
* Continue with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (more commonly known as “Obamacare”) which provides foo, foo, and foo.
* Rework the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to include private-sector reforms which some people will offer more flexibility in healthcare coverage.
However, as the survey is currently worded the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act seems to be the worst possible option which limits your personal freedoms and is rigid in its requirements. No matter how a politician feels about a particular federal program they really should understand that they represent more than those with the same party affiliation. By creating survey questions which will likely be used as evidence of the public’s choice of legislative priority they are doing their constituency a great disservice and they make themselves look amateurish and ridiculous.
While Kurt Bills is not the first local politician who failed to understand how to properly word survey questions however he really should be the last. Please, for the love of god, find someone at the Capitol who can come up with questions and survey options which are not leading, not ridiculous, and don’t purposefully direct the constituency into allowing for what could be poor decisions simply because someone doesn’t know how to properly author a survey.
What do you think about Kurt Bills’ survey? Do you find the questions and choices leading? Do you think any meaningful data will be acquired through the collection of responses? Whatever you have to say about Kurt Bill’s survey go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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February 13th, 2012 at 7:19 am
I’ve often struggled with these, it leaves to questions 1) Bill’s is so blinded by his political theology that he can’t imagine a legitimate point of view that is not in alignment with his world view. For example, someone might support “Obama Care”. It that or 2) we all know that these responses are leading so that when they report results we can read that 100% of my constituents support my position… blah blah..
Makes me want to ask Representitive Bills if he still beats his wife. Same kind of question.
February 13th, 2012 at 8:49 am
Surveys by politicians are indeed hilarious! They are a PR ploy, pure and simple. They are meant to make the Pol appear to be gathering information. We all can see through that! The surveys are a simple mechanism for the Pol to show that the people support their position. In reality the surveys reveal “confirmation bias” – the Pol’s blind spot. When I filled out Rep. Bill’s survey I revealed my bias as a Wellstone Democrate, a liberal, a progressive.
Kurt Bills is endorsed by the Republican Liberty Caucus (read Tea Party). Nothing wrong with that, as long as that’s what folks want from their government and their representative. It’s just not for me. I think Kurt Bills should work for all the people in 37B, me included. At a minimum a little compromise should be in the governing mix.
February 13th, 2012 at 9:21 am
And every day, the sun rises in the east ….
If anyone knows of a “legitimate” survey conducted by a politician, please let us know.
February 13th, 2012 at 9:53 am
Why do their constituents permit them to wave around poorly worded and conducted surveys as further evidence of their chosen priorities then?
February 13th, 2012 at 10:15 am
I just write in my answers instead of taking one of the dopey multiple choice offerings… this is not only Republicans who do this. Also I suspect your taxpayer dollars are paying for it. But maybe someone can correct me on that.
I think most sane people probably throw it in the garbage, but its a pity that actual input to your representative is hard to get.
February 13th, 2012 at 11:33 am
Political survey are ridiculous and I rarely fill them out. If I thought they would actually have an impact I may take the time. But I think everyone knows they are meaningless in impacting the politician’s point of view.
February 13th, 2012 at 1:48 pm
The first time I got one of these, I did what mulch did, but since then I haven’t bothered to fill them out (and yes, both sides do it). I’d rather contact my reps directly about issues.
February 14th, 2012 at 7:46 am
It’s much more effective to state your concerns directly.
February 14th, 2012 at 8:03 am
Based on my interactions with my local reps, I disagree with that.
February 14th, 2012 at 10:04 am
From what I have seen most reps in the SOTR districts (DFL or GOP) tend to vote with their legislative caucuses and what you tell them that is contrary to their caucuses orders meets deaf ears. There are occasional exceptions to this rule.
February 14th, 2012 at 3:08 pm
So, I clicked on Rep Bills’ profile. It states that he has an education, yet this survey seems to indicate that he has none.
My soul hurts.
May 7th, 2012 at 2:43 pm
I have yet to see ANY representative’s survey (rep. or dem.)to not be biased or leading. This is just a smear article with a political agenda to smear Bills, a target because he is running for National Senate.
May 8th, 2012 at 12:04 am
Nance, since this article was posted on FEBRUARY 14th and Bills didn’t announce his plan to run until MARCH 22nd, I’m going to have to say that you’re an idiot.