Gov. Mark Sanford's office on Tuesday released the list of questions asked for a controversial poll about state government.

Democrats had raised concern about the poll last month, saying they wanted to make sure it wasn't taken for political reasons. The poll, which was done at the request of Sanford's government accountability and performance commission, was compiled by the University of South Carolina and cost about $4,000.

Polls are commonly used by political campaigns and marketing firms to gauge opinions or test ideas. Democrats were further concerned because Sanford's office wouldn't immediately release the questions.

Ken Wingate, who heads the commission, said at the time that the poll wasn't political, but he didn't want to pre-empt the group's work by distributing information before members were ready.

The questions made public Tuesday showed pollsters asked general questions, such as how people rated the quality of life in South Carolina, whether they thought the state was headed in the right direction and whether people trusted government.

It also asked people to rate the quality of state roads, efforts to reduce unemployment and other state functions.

House Minority Leader James Smith, a Columbia Democrat, said he was encouraged to see the poll didn't ask any overtly political questions, such as whether people would vote to re-elect Sanford.

Smith said he hopes the commission will use it to come up with helpful suggestions for how to better operate state government. The poll was one of many tools used by the bipartisan commission, which will make its final report Sept. 30.

"I don't personally believe it's necessary," Smith said of the poll. "I do hope the results will be available to everyone."