Friday "commando" blogging: Californians do not support special election (poll)


Which makes all the sense in the world, given that it would cost $80 million and we have a regularly scheduled primary election seven months later.

In the TMI department: I just got out of bed, and I'm not wearing any pants. Never let it be said that I spared you uncomfortable details.

Governor lacks support for special election, poll finds
Voters would rather see his initiatives on '06 primary ballot
(San Francisco Chronicle) If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger calls a special election this November, he will have to face voters angry at the prospect of yet another statewide ballot, a new poll showed today.

By a nearly 2-to-1 ratio, California adults would rather see Schwarzenegger's government reform plan go on the ballot for the scheduled June 2006 primary election than this fall.

"Since January, we have seen the support for a special election drop by 12 percentage points,'' said Marc Baldassare, director of the Public Policy Institute of California poll. "The more (voters) have heard about the governor's initiatives, the less they are convinced this is something we need to do this year.''


That last paragraph contains critical information: Polls break a couple of different ways, and the way that politicians decide whether to keep pushing on something is whether or not giving the voters more information actually helps the cause in question. If more information helps, they dump money into voter awareness and educational advertising. On the contrary, if less information helps, they go negative — but this doesn't work when you're not running against someone else.

Of course, California voters are notoriously fickle , and tend to accept an election once it's called. Still, perhaps these results will give the Governor pause. We're something like three weeks away from the deadline for an official announcement of the election...watch this space for future developments.

Posted: Fri - May 27, 2005 at 11:03 AM   | Category:     |   |   | |


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