LANSING, Mich. — While voters are walloping elected officials from Congress to the state legislature with all-time low approval ratings, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is riding high and enjoying unprecedented electoral support for his job performance thus far, according to a recent survey of southeast Michigan voters.

Better than four of every five voters surveyed (81 percent) gave Bing high marks, with 16 percent rating his job performance as “great” and another 65 percent giving him a “good” report card as mayor. Just eight percent gave him a failing grade, with five percent saying he’s done a “poor” job and another three percent labeling it “terrible.”

Ironically, Bing’s scored lower numbers in the City of Detroit than in the surrounding counties, but they are still strong. Sixty-one percent of Detroiters said their mayor is doing a “great” or “good” job, while a quarter (24 percent) judged his performance at City Hall as “poor” or “terrible.”Bing — a former Detroit Pistons NBA All Star and businessman – drew eye-popping approval ratings in the surrounding communities. In Oakland County, 85 percent of voters gave him a thumb’s up and just six percent said they disapproved of his performance. Similarly in Macomb County 82 percent gave him good grades while five percent disapproved. And in out-county Wayne, the mayor won job approval accolades from 83 percent of voters and the disapproval of six percent.

“In technical terms, these numbers are unfrickin-believable,” said The Rossman Group’s founder and CEO, Kelly Rossman-McKinney. “In this anti-incumbency political climate, most elected officials would be praying to the polling-gods for job approval ratings half as good. That kind of support from the city and the entire region is a mandate that can definitely help the mayor be the agent of change the city so desperately needs.”

The 600-sample poll of Macomb, Oakland and Wayne County voters was conducted from May 22 to May 24 by Denno Noor Research for The Rossman Group and The Perricone Group. The margin of error is +/- 4 percent.

Voters were also asked whether a “wild party at the Manoogian Mansion” really happened in the fall of 2002 or if the long-simmering rumor amounts to nothing more than urban legend. A stunning 83 percent of them responded that the party really occurred, while only six percent said it never took place. The rumor – never proven – is that then-Mayor

Kwame Kilpatrick hosted the party and that his wife, Carlita, made a surprise appearance where she assaulted a stripper who was later shot to death in what remains an unsolved Detroit killing.

“While the public may not buy into all conspiracy theories, they certainly believe in the rumored happenings at the Manoogian Mansion,” said Chuck Perricone, CEO of The Perricone Group. “If perception is truly reality, then for four out of five southeast Michigan voters the party happened. Until it is proven that the party never took place, this issue is not going away – and that’s a big problem for anyone associated with it.”

The survey also found:

• When it comes to who voters would trust most to run the troubled Detroit Public Schools, exactly half of poll respondents answered that it would be a partnership of the current Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Officer Robert Bobb along with Mayor Dave Bing. A solo Robert Bobb was favored by 21 percent, followed by eight percent who would give the job to Mayor Bing, and four percent who would place the responsibility with the “elected Detroit School Board.”
• More than half (55 percent) of voters said they would use a proposed light rail system to travel along the Woodward Corridor between downtown Detroit and Oakland County as long as it were “affordable, safe and reliable…” Another 40 percent of survey participants said they would not avail themselves of the service.

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Methodology: This survey was part of the Rossman Group/Perricone Group/Denno Noor Polling Quarterly Survey of the Michigan electorate. 600 respondents in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne Counties were surveyed between May 22 through May 24, 2010, with a margin of error of plus/minus 4%, and the participation was stratified based on census data and past voter behavior. A screen was employed to include only those participants who said they would vote, either at the polls or by absentee ballot, in the November 2010 General Election. All numbers are rounded and may exceed 100%.

Attribution: For attribution purposes, please recognize all three organizations that partnered in the poll: The Rossman Group, Denno-Noor Research and The Perricone Group.

Contact: Kelly Rossman-McKinney Cell:517-749-0529 Dennis Denno, Denno-Noor Research President Cell: 517-402-2453 Chuck Perricone, Perricone Group President Cell: 269 758-3480 Mark Pischea, The Rossman Group President 517-927-1089