Today brings a new Field Poll, and a
new round of bad news for Gov. Schwarzenegger. The Bee buries the lead in this morning's story, waiting until the fourth paragraph to tell readers "53 percent of all registered voters said they disapprove of the job he's doing as governor. That negative finding grew 18 percentage points in just four months."
And nowhere in the Bee's story do you learn that "
Less than a third -- 31 percent -- of the state's adults approve of the job the governor is doing in Sacramento, down from 54 percent in February. The numbers are only slightly better among registered voters, 37 percent of whom are happy with Schwarzenegger's performance and 53 percent dissatisfied." You need to go to the Chronicle to find that.
In fact, the Chron leads off with a bang saying "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
suddenly ranks among the most unpopular governors in modern California history."
Pollster
Mark DiCamillo said of the findings: "It's a
very broad rejection of the governor across lots of different segments of the public."
The
Press-Enterprise has more from DiCamillo: "Last year, the governor had the support of a plurality of Democrats. That offered him his unique power..."
"Now it seems like the Democrats have gone to the Democratic side, the Republicans are sticking with the governor, and
the non-partisan side is 2-to-1 with the leaders in the Legislature," he said. "They've moved in a big way."
Schwarzenegger consultant
Mike Murphy calls the poll "balderdash." Reports that he then stuck his pipe in his mouth, gave reporters a "cheerio" and "top of the morning," and went home to have a spot of tea were unconfirmed as of this writing.
The governor himself is stepping in for press secretary
Margita Thompson at this morning's 10:30 a.m. press conference to give us his version of what it all means.
As for the special election, "Registered voters opposed the special election 52 percent to 37 percent, even when the matter of election costs wasn't included in the question, the Field Poll released Monday found," the Bee reports.
Here are the
poll results. Expect more polls in the coming days, likely on the specific measures voters will face on the November ballot. If past patterns hold, there will probably be a poll about President Bush's popularity, leading to the inevitable comparisons between Bush and Schwarzenegger.
Eight is enough... The least understood, perhaps most significant, and least likely to be seriously funded initiative on the November ballot,
a measure to re-regulate California's energy system, qualified for the ballot yesterday.
Well, actually, 'the ballot measure wouldn't really re-regulate, although the consumer group promoting it likes to call it a "re-regulation and blackout avoidance' initiative.
We're already confused.
...or is it? Anyway, that wraps the
special election ballot at eight measures, although the Capitol is abuzz with a deal that adds at least two more. The legislature still has a few weeks before the deadline for a deal, so don't expect any big announcements in the near future.
Adding fuel for the upcoming budget reform debate, the Chronicle
names nearly 2,000 state employees whose total compensation exceeded $132,000 each. They even provide
a sortable database, where you can find that a registered nurse,
Reydante R. Edora, who works for the Department of Mental Health, whose base
salary of $65,226.02 is not newsworthy. What is newsworthy is
$128,698.42 in overtime, adding to a total compensation of $195,088.76.
Speaking of budget news, the LA Daily News reports LA County has a
$1 billion surplus "which supervisors decided Monday to spend hiring hundreds of deputies and propping up the ailing public health-care system."
Kind of makes you miss the good old days when the state could just steal the money.
The AP reports that
Mark Leno plans to gut-and-amend a bill on the Senate floor to revive his gender-neutral marriage bill,
AB 19. "'My hope is that we will have a bill amended by the end of this week or the beginning of next,' said Leno, declining to offer specifics on which legislation he plans to rewrite. 'We intend to do this.'"
From our "UPS will lose it or hackers will steal it anyway files:" A federal appeals court found parts of
SB 1, the banking privacy law, pre-empted by federal law. "State Sen.
Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, said '
SB 1 is alive and well.'"
"The California Bankers Association, in a prepared statement, said it '
is pleased with the ... decision, which allows the (federal) Fair Credit Reporting Act to continue to pre-empt specific provisions of SB 1.'"
AG
Bill Lockyer spokesman
Tom Dressler explains the win-win: "The extent of pre-emption has been left undecided, and will be determined by the District Court in Sacramento..."
And a tearful RIP to California Confidential, the fledgling web log by Sen. John Campbell whose life was cut short by political ambition. KQED's
John Myers has the details. "If you've been meaning to read that brand new blog from Senator John Campbell (R-Irvine)... well, you're too late," Myers writes. "Today, Campbell posted a message saying that he was pulling the plug 'due to an unforeseen turn of events.'
Campbell is running for Congress just as soon as the Senate approves Rep.
Chris Cox's nomination to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Campbell's Web experiment lasted
three days longer than the LA Times', which
pulled its "wikitorial" feature once and for all yesterday. In yet another victory of
porn over substance, Deputy editorial page editor
Michael Newman said the site had been flooded with porn. According to
LA ObservedNewman "suggests the hardcore stuff came in after a pointer was placed on Slashdot.org.
The people have spoken.
