Poll: 59% Say State's Lost its Way
More than half blame political leaders - with the governor among them - for California's problems.
Nearly 60 percent of Californians believe the state is "seriously off on the wrong track" and more than half blame Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger or other state elected officials for California's problems, according to Field Poll results released Monday.
Only 28 percent of the residents polled believe California is headed in the right direction, a continuing decline in confidence since a poll in February showed that just 40 percent of residents believed the state was on the right track.
Residents' negative perceptions of California in the most recent survey are less strident than in 2003, when 71 percent of residents said the state was on the wrong track during the recall campaign against Gov. Gray Davis. In 1992, on the heels of a prolonged economic recession and the Los Angeles riots after the acquittal of police officers in the Rodney King case, 90 percent of California residents said the state was headed in the wrong direction.
But Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo said the latest polling numbers carry an ominous message of a lack of confidence in Schwarzenegger and other state officials. More than half of the 59 percent of poll respondents who said the state was headed in the wrong direction blamed their elected officials, with 28 percent saying the Republican governor was to blame for California's problems. Another 23 percent cited a poor job by the state's elected officials, including the Legislature.
"What is surprising to me is that half the adults are saying the reason they feel so pessimistic about the direction of the state is because of its political leadership," DiCamillo said. "Despite all the issues swirling out there, crime, taxes, housing costs, they all pale next to the number of people mentioning the failure of political leadership."
By comparison, 21 percent of poll respondents cited poor school performance as the biggest reason for the state heading in the wrong direction. Another 9 percent cited a lack of jobs and good wages. Seven percent said California's chief problem was its burgeoning state government debt. Another 7 percent cited the high cost of living, 6 percent assailed the failure of immigration authorities to control California's borders and 5 percent cited crime and high taxes.
The poll results were based on a random telephone survey of 463 California adults that was conducted in English and Spanish between June 13 and June 19.
Among those contacted was Tamir Sukkary, a Sacramento County resident and a political science professor at American River and Sierra colleges. Sukkary, an independent voter who said he was "thrilled" to be contacted by the Field Poll because of his interest in California politics, said California is headed in the wrong direction - and the blame falls squarely on its political leaders.
"We have faced reoccurring state budget problems, and I don't see the politicians in Sacramento working to close that gap between spending and revenues," Sukkary said. "I don't see them making the difficult decisions they need to make on whether to increase revenues or cut services. They just borrow money and increase the debt on future generations."
Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, said the poll results reflect a sense of betrayal among California residents over the performance of the governor and lawmakers.
"I think that voters thought they were going to get a new direction in Sacramento with the new governor," Maviglio said. "A lot of them feel they have been had. And they lump government's dysfunction into one boat, including the Legislature and the governor.
"They expect us to perform, and if we don't, it's a plague on both of our houses."
In other Field Poll results last week, only 37 percent of residents approved of Schwarzenegger's performance in office, and the governor's call for a special election was also highly unpopular.
Responding to the latest poll results, Margita Thompson, Schwarzenegger's press secretary, said: "The governor is confident that his reforms will put California back on the right track."
She said residents' view of Schwarzenegger and state government could improve markedly if the Democratic lawmakers and the governor agree on a compromise package of legislative and ballot measures to address critical issues, including state spending, pensions, political redistricting and teacher tenure.
According to the latest poll results, the people most pessimistic about the direction of California are women, Democrats, nonpartisan voters, older residents, Latinos and people with household incomes less than $40,000 a year.
Only 18 percent of registered Democrats said they believed California is headed in the right direction, compared with 46 percent of Republicans.