Developers and the Republican party are Provo's power players, according to a new poll.

The poll, run by Brigham Young University's Center for the Study of Election and Democracy, was done in advance of today's election. It included questions about issues, candidates, those who influence, and outgoing Mayor Lewis Billings.

Quin Monson, with the center, said they won't be releasing candidate numbers until later today because they're still ironing out the kinks in the polling method and don't want to unduly influence the election.

That developers topped the list of those who do wield influence in the city surprised Monson, who said he didn't think people would notice such a group.

"They appear to have noticed," he said.

In preliminary results, the GOP tied with developers on the list of 10, followed by BYU, Realtors and the Utah Education Association.

At the bottom?

The Democratic party. Results were scored on a 1-5 scale.

Just more than 77 percent agreed or strongly agreed that Provo should protect Rock Canyon from any development. A surprise in the poll is that more than 50 percent of responders disagreed or strongly disagreed that "building iProvo was a good idea."

That may have played into the results for Provo's outgoing mayor, who remains a staunch advocate for the high-speed telecommunications network. Billings was given a B- for his 12 years as mayor, but not many would have wanted him back for a fourth term.

Just 36 percent of responders said they would have voted for him. Billings was still widely believed to be a candidate when he unexpectedly announced in June that he wouldn't be running again. Monson doesn't think that will affect either Steve Clark or John Curtis, who are vying to replace him in today's election.

"Nobody is trying to run as the heir-apparent to Lewis Billings," he said.

The center sent out more than 7,000 letters to registered voters in Provo and got more than 700 responses via a Web site, placing the margin of error between 3.5 and 4 percent.

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