Numbers game

Oct 28, 2005

The Public Policy Institute of California is out with a new poll. Here are the numbers among likely voters:

Proposition 73: Parental Notification
Yes: 42%
No: 48%

Proposition 74: Tenure
Yes: 46%
No: 48%

Proposition 75: Union Dues
Yes: 46%
No: 46%

Proposition 76: Budget Reform
Yes: 30%
No: 62%

Proposition 77: Redistricting
Yes: 36%
No: 50%

Meanwhile, the governor's approval rating among likely voters is 38%, with a disapproval of 57%. The Legislature's approval is 21%; disapproval is 65%.

Gary Delsohn writes in the the Bee: "While the poll numbers are not very encouraging for the governor, pollster Mark Baldassare cautioned that the results don't mean the election is over.

"'All these measures are close,' he said. 'There's a considerable amount of time ... and there will be new messages and countermessages. I don't feel like this election is necessarily settled.'"

"'His [the governor's] TV ads have not been working, and people are not as believing as perhaps they were,' said Jaime Regalado, director of the nonpartisan Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs. 'He's really been beaten up by his own misdeeds on one hand and the onslaught of negative ads from the other side.'"

The governor begins airing a new ad today with offer a kinder, gentler and more humble approach, reports Michael Finnegan in the Times. "'I've had a lot to learn, and sometimes I learned the hard way,' he says in the 30-second spot, which features the governor speaking directly to the camera. 'But my heart is in this, and I want to do right by you.'"

Here's the ad.

"'We think the governor is our absolute best messenger for these reforms,' campaign spokesman Todd Harris said."

Yes, having someone else apologize for you probably wouldn't cut it. Still, Gale Kaufman is not impressed.

"'How many Hail Mary passes do you get in one campaign?' union campaign strategist Gale Kaufman said."

"Kaufman also suggested that the new Schwarzenegger ad was timed to deflect attention from the poll."

The Alliance has some new ads of their own -- including a Spanish-language ad in which Pete Wilson morphs into Gov. Schwarzenegger.

The Chronicle takes some time to sift through new campaign spending reports.

"Financial reports filed Thursday show that almost $16 million poured in over the past month as the governor tapped deep-pocketed donors from across the nation. Two dozen of his hundreds of contributors have given Schwarzenegger $100,000 or more.

But Schwarzenegger's California Recovery Team isn't the only big spender in this fall's election campaign. The California Teachers Association spent more than $52.9 million by the Oct. 22 deadline for the new campaign finance report. They have handed out another $1.9 million since then, including $500,000 to the California Democratic Party."

The California State University Board of Trustees hiked fees yesterday. "Under the plan approved by Cal State trustees, full-time undergraduate students who are California residents will pay $2,724 in systemwide fees next year, up from $2,520 this year. Combined with the additional fees imposed by each campus, undergraduates will pay an average of $3,368 next year, up from the current $3,164. Room, board and books are not included in those figures."

"The trustees approved the budget, including the fee increases, by a 13-1 vote, with the lone 'no' vote cast by student Trustee Corey Jackson, who called the fee hike a 'student tax.'"

"Trustee Robert Foster, addressing the student leaders directly, said his vote for the fee increase and budget proposal 'is something I don't like to do, nobody wants to do, but we have to because we have to preserve quality.'"

"'We want this degree you're working so hard, and probably going into debt for, to be worth something,' he said. 'So you have to preserve quality as well as access.'"


Meanwhile, the Times refocuses on Maria and her continued silence about the special election.

"Shriver instead praised her husband as a 'good man and a courageous man. You certainly can let people know you love and believe in your husband, even while people on one side scream for you to denounce him, and those on the other side scream for you to support him,' she said.

"She also poked at one of her husband's most celebrated detractors: movie star Warren Beatty. Beatty, often mentioned as a possible gubernatorial candidate in 2006, has given pointed speeches in recent months painting Schwarzenegger's tenure as a failure.

"'When I look in the mirror, I don't just see a first lady,' Shriver said. 'I don't just see a Kennedy or a Schwarzenegger. I don't just see a mother, a daughter, a wife, a sister or a friend." Her voice swelling with enthusiasm, she added: "Thank God I don't see Warren Beatty!'"

Did anyone ever care what Gail Wilson or Sharon Davis thought about policy?