Posted on 09/29/2006 12:46:36 PM PDT by SmithL
Trailing badly in July, a $2.8 billion housing bond slated for the November ballot has significantly improved its standing in the latest Field Poll -- proving the adage in the survey business that it's all in how you ask the question.
The three other infrastructure bond measures are all leading in the survey released Thursday, but their support barely tops the 50 percent margin.
With 40 days until the Nov. 7 election, poll Director Mark DiCamillo said the survey suggests potentially razor-thin outcomes for the infrastructure measures that generated bipartisan euphoria in the spring when the Democratic Legislature and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger teamed up to place them on the ballot.
"They're getting just about the bare minimum for passage," DiCamillo said of the measures. "I guess I'm expecting a close election on just about all of these."
As far as turnarounds go, Proposition 1C -- the housing measure -- has flipped the switch from night to day. The Field survey in July had it losing badly, with 42 percent of respondents saying they'd vote against it while only 33 percent said they were in favor. Some 25 percent were undecided.
In the poll results released Thursday, Proposition 1C checked in with 58 percent support, a stunning change from the July results. Just 28 percent of respondents opposed the measure and 14 percent remained undecided.
DiCamillo attributed the turnaround to the way the pollsters asked the question.
In July, respondents were presented only with the proposition number and the cost. More recently, the 280 likely voters who responded in the survey conducted Sept. 14-24 had a virtual facsimile of the ballot summary read to them.
"I was struck by the influence the reading of the ballot label has," DiCamillo said. "It produces a much more positive response."
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
It's over baby. We're turning into (the old) Sweden.
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."
Sweden is actually trying to peel back some of the layers of taxation and socialism.. sadly California is rushing headlong into more of it with nary a concern for the costs to ensue.
Thanks, Arnie.
Yep, we are like the old Sweden, not the current one.
I'd feel much more comfortable with sadly California's political class
To those who raise the issue of republican democracy, I counter with the rise of the Austrian (elected by 22% of those elgible) and the influence of aliens in SoCal's legislative pluarlity.
Can you tell me to whom this quote is attributed? Thanks, Norski
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
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