Those accustomed to simply hanging up on annoying, unsolicited callers may want to hang on the line an extra few seconds in the coming

weeks – just in case.

With the help of the ubiquitous Elway Research, Kitsap County officials plan to conduct a round of scientific polling on the NASCAR/International Speedway Corporation racetrack currently proposed for South Kitsap. The county commissioners are expected to approve a $17,000 contract with Elway at their upcoming meeting; polling would commence shortly thereafter, with the results known in time for the next legislative session in Olympia (and to guide the commissioners in their own deliberations).

Word from our county desk is that Elway will survey some 600 Kitsap residents by phone, with interviews taking about 15 minutes. Some questions will be structured – Do you support this? Do you oppose that? – while others will be “open ended” and allow respondents to answer in their own words.

We note the planned polling here so islanders will know that, should they receive such a call, the questions are commissioned by their county government and are intended as an objective measure of local sentiment; it’s not the handiwork of track friends or foes, using stilted questions to put their thumb on the scale of public opinion.

At issue is a proposed 83,000-seat racetrack on 950 acres south of the Bremerton airport, for which ISC says it would pay $166 million of the $345 million cost. Bonds, to be issued by a new public speedway authority and paid back by state sales tax credits, would fund the remainder of the project.

With no formal hearings on the horizon, ISC has been working such events as Seattle’s SeaFair and the Kitsap County Fair for support – in a promotional RV, no less – while anti-track groups including West Sound Conservation Voters are taking a lower-key approach. (“They are spending their second million, and we have yet to raise $10,000,” one member of CHECK, another the anti-track group, recently quipped.)

The Elway polling is a fine move by county commissioners, as far as it goes, and we urge respondents to take it seriously. At the same time, with the track’s fate clearly hinging on support in Olympia, aspiring legislators should be looking beyond the polls to the state’s many competing funding needs, including health care and education. There’s only so many public dollars to spread around for causes that don’t enjoy the marketing clout of NASCAR.

So too should the voters. With competitive races for both 23rd District House seats – and with two of our island neighbors, Republican Earl Johnson and Democrat Christine Rolfes, challenging the always-accessible North Kitsap incumbents Sherry Appleton and Bev Woods – constituents have a ripe opportunity to speak up now.

Don’t wait for the pollsters; you’ll never have a firmer pinch on the legislative ear than you will before the election, as candidates court your vote.

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Correction

• The church at which Jay Inslee spoke last Thursday was misidentified in the Saturday Review. The congregation is Suquamish United Church of Christ.