Rutland Daily Herald from Rutland, Vermont • 11

i RUTLAND DAILY HERALD, FRIDAY MORNING, APRIL 22, 1988 Sanders Poll Puts Him Close Second Vermont Farmers To Attend Rally By DEBORAH SLINE Vermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER The cam paign of independent congressional candidate Bernard Sanders released an in-house political poll Thursday showing the Burlington mayor would run a close second to Republican Peter P. Smith if the election were held now. The poll results, released by campaign coordinator Terrill Bouricius at a noon press conference, reflected the responses of 424 voting-age Vermonters surveyed by telephone between April 11 ana Tuesday. The survey's release im rnard Sanders breakdown of age groups, rtlc also said participants Another Democratic House candidate, James Guest, disputed the poll's suggestion that the mayor would beat him handily. "Everything Ive seen about the race is that right now Peter Smith is ahead, 1 run second and Bernie Sanders runs third," he said.

Guest said such an in-house poll was "always dangerous" and added that he was convinced either a Democrat or Republican would win the contest. If Bernie believes that poll, 1 think he's in for some surprises," he said. The Sanders camp, however, touted the poll which had an error rate of plus or minus 6 percent as a positive sign for Sanders' chances in the congressional contest. Weve got a long way to go. Bouricius said.

"However, this Eoll indicates to us that there is road support for Bernie Sanders ana we are delighted with the fact that, at this time, he is very close to the Republican candidate and ahead of all of the announced Democratic candidates." The poll showed the following responses to different candidate lineups in the race to replace longtime Rep. James Jeffords, who is running for the Senate this year: If Welch, Senate president pro tempore, were the Democratic nominee, he would receive 17 percent of the vote; Smith, 34 percent; Sanders, 30 percent; Libertarian James Hed- bor, 2 percent; 17 percent undecided. Welch, while questioning the poll's validity, noted, "This has me in the lead out in front, in the Democratic primary. It reinforces my confidence that I can win that' If Guest, former secretary of state, were the Democratic nominee, he would draw 17 percent; Smith, 30 percent; Sanders, 28 percent; Hedhor, 2 percent; 23 percent undecided. If the Democrat nominee were House Majority Leader Paul Poirier, he would receive 7 percent; Smith, 32 percent; Sanders, 30 percent; Hedbor, 2 percent; 29 percent undecided.

Poirier found it heartening that Smith and Sanders did not win more support, given their perceived name recognition. "Of all the candidates, I have done the least public campaigning" so far, he said. While he also questioned the poll's accuracy, Poirier said it perhaps demonstrated there was no strong commitment yet for any Democratic House candidate. If University of Vermont professor Dolores Sandoval were the Democrat, she would et 2 percent; Smith 34 percent; anders, 31 percent; Hedbor 2 percent; 31 percent undecided. Smith could not be reached for comment Thursday, but campaign spokesman David Dillon said it wouldn't surprise me if Smith were ahead, due to the former lieutenant governors record of service.

their milk over the federal support price. Supporters hope that the 11 Northeast stales will end up joining the compact. Thai Vermont's unorganized contingent will include other legislators and some dairy farmers, most of them from northern Vermont, who plan to show up in front of the New York state capitol building Monday to help boost farm unity, RCMA and solutions to the dairy crisis. But no one js sure how many from Vermont will be there. An effort at organizing busloads of Vermont farmers fizzled when she didn't get promised help from Sen.

Patrick Leahy office. Egan paid. Letters and press releases to the state's dairy cooperatives, Regional Cooperative Marketing Agency directors, and other dairy groups reaped little interest either, Egan said. Donald Simpson, a Sutton dairy farmer, said a few carloads from Caledonia County would be going, although there had been a lack of media publicity about the rally, "There's quite a lot of interest but it's a busy time of year, Simpson said. Everybody's getting ready to plant or just getting done sugaring." By SUSAN HARLOW Southern Vermont Bureau TROY Rep.

Robert Starr, D-Troy, had just about decided he wouldn't go to the farm rally in Albany Monday, until organizer Alice Egan called him in desperation last Sunday. "I don't like rallies, so 1 wksn't going to go said the chairman of the House Agriculture Commit1 tee. Then I got a phone call." "I said Bob Starr, you're to bring a delegation of egislators down here or there's not going to be enough farmers to say so over here, Egan said. That call evidently changed Starr's mind. He told Egan he would be sending out a letter urging farmers to go.

"They need a boost down there in New York they don't have the closeness we seem to have here in Vermont," Starr said, Starr, along with New Sen. John McHugh, chairman of the New York Dairy Commission, now plans to present a proposal for an interstate dairy compact at the rally. The compact has been proposed by Vermont and New York lawmakers as a way to put some legal teeth into the Regional Cooperative Marketing Agency. Under the compact, milk handlers would have to pay premiums for mediately drew varying levels of criticism from Sapders potential opponents in the race for Vermonts House seat. Some questioned its validity, because it was conducted by Sanders volunteers rather than prpfes-sional pollsters, and some said it was little more than a test of name-recognition this early in the race.

Sanders' poll showed Smith would be the front-runner in the U.S. House race, if the election were held now. However, it also showed Sanders would run just behind him with between 28 percent and 31 percent of the vote, depending on the identity of the Democratic nominee. The block of undecided respondents also varied significantly, from 17 percent to 31 percent, depending on the lineup of candidates in the race. About 30 Sanders volunteers conducted the 13-question poll, which was released in its entirety.

Bouricius stressed that participating households were selected randomly from telephone books statewide, in proportion to each countys population and to the statewide He were screened to ensure they were of voting age, and 89 percent of those surveyed also said they were registered to vote. The in-house nature of the poll was not explained to survey participants, Bouricius said, except to about 1 percent who asked the identity of the surveys sponsor. Although the poll was not conducted by a professional outside firm, Bouricius said, We are confident that anyone conducting a similar poll would have come up with the same results." Democratic House candidate Peter Welch disagreed, however. As a scientific survey, it has no credibility," he said, noting the poll appeared to be little more than a "name recognition questionnaire." Welch also said that one of his campaign workers was polled and was advised that the survey was being done for Sanders, which Welch charged "violated a cardinal rule" of polling. LAWN-BOY HIGH-RIDING SAVRiGS! Come on in for a Test Drive Join Us For Our Open House on April 30th ot 1 58 N.

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