Posted on 09/02/2005 9:54:33 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO - With a little more than two months until the special election called by Gov. Schwarzenegger, a new statewide poll shows that a majority of voters want to call it off.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents in a Field Institute survey released today said lawmakers should cancel the Nov. 8 election, with 34 percent saying it should go forward.
Opposition to the election increases to 63 percent when respondents were told of its estimated $55 million cost.
The survey, conducted for The Press-Enterprise and other California media subscribers during the last two weeks, found that most voters are unhappy with Schwarzenegger's job performance as he heads into the fall campaign. Thirty-six percent of registered voters approve of the governor's job performance, the poll shows.
Schwarzenegger has ruled out trying to cancel the November ballot. He promises a vigorous campaign for his three "year of reform" initiatives: changing how political districts are drawn, making it easier to cut spending when revenues fall, and increasing from two years to five years the amount of time before teachers earn tenure.
The percentage of people who support calling off the election is about the same as the percentage who never wanted it in the first place, poll director Mark DiCamillo said.
Claire Harrington, a poll respondent from Reche Canyon in Riverside County, wants the election canceled. The ballot, she said, is "a waste of money we don't have."
"I really think it would be a wise political move. He's not going to get anywhere with it," said Harrington, a Democrat who opposed Schwarzenegger in the 2003 recall election. She intends to vote Nov. 8.
Seventy-eight percent of Democrats and 61 percent of independent voters support calling off the election. The poll found that 29 percent of Republicans want to cancel the ballot, with 62 percent wanting to go ahead with it.
Poll respondent Lucille McKinley of Hemet, a Republican, said she supports the election and will vote for the Schwarzenegger-backed initiatives.
"If we don't get an overall picture of how voters feel, how will it be decided what's going to be done?" she said. "I know it's a lot of money and a lot of people think it's wasteful, but this is the only way he's going to be able to govern."
Some believe that opposition to the election among Democrats and independent voters could help Schwarzenegger as well as supporters of an initiative requiring that public employee unions get annual permission from their members before spending dues for political purposes.
"It's going to be very hard for the Democrats to motivate their base to turn out if they keep telling their base that this is an election about nothing," said Schwarzenegger campaign spokesman Todd Harris.
But Gale Kaufman, a strategist for the main organization opposing the initiatives, said most voters initially opposed the 2003 recall election, but then turned out in droves.
"I think what will happen is that the governor's policies will coalesce voters against him and they will show their displeasure by voting 'no,' " Kaufman said.
Lawmakers disagree how -- or even if -- Schwarzenegger or the Legislature could cancel the election. Nothing in the state constitution mentions it.
Unhappiness about the ballot has contributed to Schwarzenegger's drop in popularity, DiCamillo said. A year ago, 65 percent of voters approved of the governor's job performance.
Harris, though, said the campaign's own surveys show stronger support for Schwarzenegger. A campaign poll two weeks ago showed 48 percent of likely voters support him.
Field Institute pollsters interviewed 891 voters statewide between Aug. 19 and Monday with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
check it out
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State legislature ratings even lower than Governor’s
As poorly as voters view the Governor’s performance, their assessment of the job the statelegislature is doing is even more negative. More than one-half (54%) now disapprove of the jobthat the lawmakers are doing and just 27% approve. Since The Field Poll began rating the performance of the state legislature more than twenty years ago, voter assessments of that body over the past two and one-half years have been among its poorest.
THIS IS DEMOCRAP BULLROAR!!!
Count me in the majority then cause I strongly disapprove.
I think I'm going to have to put on the chest waders cause the hip waders are about to go under.
I don't think the outcomes will be that close and I do think the measures will pass.
Good luck to you. I'll probably be going down with the ship, but after I put my second child through college I may join you.
The internals show they spoke to 1300 people of which just under 900 claimed to be registered voters. In which country are they registered? How many actually intend to vote in the election? This begins to look like yet another big "surprise" for the ratmedia. Final question: in a state
that has a budget in the 160 billion range,how many respondents know the difference between a million and a billion?
This is such a "push" poll. What if respondents were told of the estimated savings if the measures passed?
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