Schwarzenegger's popularity plunges to new low over referendum: poll
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's popularity has plunged to
its lowest point following his decision to call a referendum to ram
through disputed reforms, a poll showed.
A survey conducted by the non-partisan Field Poll showed the action
movie hero's once-towering approval rating among registered voters had
plunged to 37 percent, compared with a high of 65 percent in September
2004.
The poll was taken after the Republican governor announced last week
a November 8 special referendum to enact legislation the Democratic
dominated state legislature refused to approve.
Some 19 months after he took power, 53 percent of those polled
disapproved of Schwarzenegger's job performance as governor.
The telephone poll was conducted June 13 - 19 among 711 registered
California voters. It has a 3.8 margin of error.
"I think this drop is definitely related to his decision to call the
special election," Mark DiCamillo of the Field Poll told AFP, adding
that only 24 percent of those polled approved of the state legislature's
job performance.
"We started the poll an hour after he made the announcement and the
voters' reaction is largely negative.
"It seems voters are viewing their elected officials, including
Governor Schwarzenegger, as not doing their jobs and just passing the
buck to the voters instead of dealing with it themselves," he said of
the referendum.
The current approval rating is a startling drop from the 65 percent
high recorded by the California-based Field Poll in three surveys
conducted between May and September of last year.
It is also down from 55 percent recorded in a Field Poll in February.
The drop in the moderate Republican actor's popularity was most
dramatic among Democratic and non-partisan voters: just 16 percent of
Democrats approved of Schwarzenegger, compared to 76 percent against
him, according to the poll.
A random sample of 954 California adults conducted simultaneously by
the Field Poll showed that just 31 percent of Californians approved of
the movie star governor, while a whopping 58 percent did not.
That compared to an approval rating of 54 percent of adults as
recently as February.
Schwarzenegger wants the public to approve a measure that would slap
spending restrictions on the state's red-ink-stained state budget,
another would leave it up to judges -- not lawmakers -- to draw
political boundaries, and a third would make it harder for teachers to
earn permanent positions.
While the measures have failed to stir public sentiment, a victory
for Schwarzenegger would prove a major boon to his Republican Party in
future elections in the largely Democratic state, political analysts
said.
But California's fourth ballot in two years will cost up to 80
million dollars, according to opponents, who include powerful public
service unions, including teachers unions, whose wings the governor
wants to clip through is referendum propositions.
"These issues don't seem that earth-shattering to voters and these
are the kind of the decisions that they feel they elect their officials
to make," said DiCamillo of the public backlash.
Schwarzenegger, who has been used to public adulation as a movie
star, was subjected to unprecedented heckling and jeering by students
and staff when he made a speech at a Los Angeles college on June 14, one
day after he announced the election.
The now 57-year-old star, who was swept into office in a landslide
special election in October 2003, has promised to clean up California's
huge budget deficit by cutting spending and cleaning up government.
But his head-to-head confrontations with rival Democratic legislators
who are blocking some of his key reform measures have lost their allure
for voters who are becoming frustrated with the battles and the special
elections.
"It's really his inability or lack of will to work with the
legislature that has caused this decline in his popularity," DiCamillo
said.
Copyright © 2005
Agence France Presse.
| 
Democracy
for America
-
Orange County
