Poll: Voters don't support ballot measures


Well, they marginally support one out of three of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's pet ballot initiatives slated for the 2005 special election, but that's hardly a passing grade.

Schwarzenegger Losing Grip On California Voters
(KTVU) A measure aimed at changing teacher tenure is the only one of three ballot initiatives backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that is supported by a majority of California voters, according to a new statewide poll.

The news Wednesday comes in the wake of the governor's plunging job approval rating and a new promise from Schwarzenegger to bring a more bipartisan effort in solving the state's budget impasse and to find compromise on his ballot measures. ...

The Field Poll reported that while most likely voters are aware of all three of his proposals -- only his teacher tenure idea has the support of a majority -- with 61 percent in favor and 32 percent opposed and 7 percent undecided.

The governor's spending cap proposal, which would impose across the board spending cuts whenever spending outstripped tax income, has support from 35 percent of the voters who participated in the poll. The poll found 42 percent of likely voters oppose the governor's spending cap measure, with 23 percent undecided.

Schwarzenegger's plan to turn over control of drawing legislative and congressional districts to a panel of retired judges is opposed by 46 percent of likely voters, with 35 percent favoring and 19 percent undecided.


Granted, these numbers are early, and for the losers they're quite soft (the margins are smaller than the "undecided" category). I'm impressed (not favorably) by the margin of support for the teacher tenure measure, but I suspect that in the end the tenure initiative will do more to cement opposition from educators (and, by extension, those who ally themselves and sympathize with educators).

It's the Democrats' job to stay on-message and make sure that the "undecideds" break against the Governor's initiatives. So far I don't see a lot of coherent effort in this direction, but I'll keep you posted if I do.

The full text of the Field Poll is here (PDF).

Posted: Wed - June 29, 2005 at 09:25 AM   | Category:     |   |   | |



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