MAPPS Members Prefer Senator McCain

Thursday August 14th 2008
Filed Under Trends in GIS 

MAPPS, a United States non-profit group comprised of GIS commercial interests, posted the results of their recent poll which surveyed the political preference of their members.  Polling restricted to the members of MAPPS showed a preference for Senator John McCain over Senator Barack Obama by 76% to 24.  The polling was conducted during the MAPPS annual summer conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.  When the polling was expanded to included all attendees at the conference (guests and spouses) the preference shrank to a preference for Senator McCain 64% to Senator’s Obama’s 36%.

The poll, conducted during the MAPPS annual summer conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, measured the preference of principals, owners, partners and senior professional executives of the geospatial community’s leading firms.

“The MAPPS members clearly prefer Senator McCain based on his record on business issues, taxes, foreign policy and national defense,” said MAPPS Executive Director John Palatiello.  “The margin in the poll demonstrates that MAPPS members view the 2008 Presidential election as a clear choice.”

The press release hints at the foresight abilities of the MAPPS members stating:

MAPPS members participating in a similar poll favored President George Bush over Senator John Kerry in July, 2004. Bush went on to defeat Kerry in the November, 2004 election.

For those not familiar with MAPPS:

MAPPS is the most politically active association in the geospatial community. The association features a full time government relations staff in Washington, DC, sponsors the MAPPS Political Action Committee (MAPPS PAC), and hosts a Federal Programs Conference in March of each year in which members of MAPPS visit Capitol Hill for meetings with some 300 members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

MAPPS most recently came to prominence in the GIS community as a result of their lawsuit which attempted to compel the Federal Acquisition Regulation to “…define “surveying and mapping” in such a way as to include contracts and subcontracts for services for Federal agencies for collecting, storing, retrieving, or disseminating graphical or digital data depicting natural or man made physical features, phenomena and boundaries of the earth and any information related thereto, including but not limited to surveys, maps, charts, remote sensing data and images and aerial photographic services’.“  MAPPS was not successful in that effort.

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    Comments

    3 Responses to “MAPPS Members Prefer Senator McCain”

    1. Jeff on August 14th, 2008 10:50 am

      Interesting, I guess war IS good for business.

    2. Drew on August 16th, 2008 5:33 pm

      Any way you could publish a list of member organisations so I will know who not to do business with?

    3. Jerome on August 18th, 2008 7:21 am

      I would be interested to see the results of a similar poll of geospatial professionals, rather than industry insiders and corporate representatives. The Obama campaign has organized a large (400+) team of volunteer GIS specialists, analysts, and managers. McCain, meanwhile, admitted to not knowing how to even use a computer.

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