Free Republic

A fine new report from the Public Policy Institute of California updates what we know about the state's political geography. For decades, the political divide in California was between the Democratic north and the Republican south. But in recent times, analysts have talked about a blue Democratic coast vs. the red Republican inland. PPIC's new report concludes that the coast vs. inland explanation isn't exactly right. When you dig deeply into the numbers, the state's real political divide puts the two former rivals -- Los Angeles County and the Bay Area -- on one side of the partisan divide, and...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A majority of Californians back Governor Jerry Brown's plan to ask them to extend tax increases to help close a $25.4 billion state budget gap, poll results released on Wednesday showed. Brown, a Democrat sworn in to a third term earlier this month as leader of America's most populous state, wants lawmakers to help him put a measure to voters in June that would propose extending tax increases that expire this year to raise money for California's cash-strapped government. Revenue from tax extensions, $12.5 billion in spending cuts and other moves would balance the state's books...

Democrats Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer hold single-digit leads over their Republican opponents, according to the latest Public Policy Institute of California poll. The survey, which was conducted between Oct. 10-17, polled 1,067 likely California voters. The poll shows Brown's lead expanding over Republican Meg Whitman in their gubernatorial contest, while in the U.S. Senate race, Republican Carly Fiorina seems to be slowly closing the gap between her and incumbent Boxer. Brown holds a 44%-36% lead over Whitman. Boxer's lead over Fiorina is 43%-38%. In the last PPIC survey, Whitman and Brown were in a statistical dead heat, with Whitman...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Democrat Jerry Brown has broken open the dead-heat contest for California governor, leading Republican Meg Whitman by 8 points going into the final two weeks of the campaign after massing robust backing from Latinos and eclipsing her support in the crucial Central Valley, a new Public Policy Institute of California poll shows. In the first major nonpartisan survey since a series of statewide televised debates and revelations of Whitman's hiring and firing of an undocumented Mexican immigrant maid, Brown has 44 percent of likely voters to 36 percent for Whitman, with 16 percent undecided and other candidates...

Democrat Jerry Brown has broken open the dead-heat contest for California governor, leading Republican Meg Whitman by 8 points going into the final two weeks of the campaign after massing robust backing from Latinos and eclipsing her support in the crucial Central Valley, a new Public Policy Institute of California poll shows. In the first major nonpartisan survey since a series of statewide televised debates and revelations of Whitman's hiring and firing of an undocumented Mexican immigrant maid, Brown has 44 percent of likely voters to 36 percent for Whitman, with 16 percent undecided and other candidates drawing 4 percent,...

According to the poll, DeVore is now within seven points of Campbell in the CA GOP Senate Primary Race.

In the governor’s race, Democrat Jerry Brown (37%) and Republican Meg Whitman (38%) are locked in a virtual tie among likely voters with 18 percent undecided. In the U.S. Senate race, incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer (42%) leads Republican Carly Fiorina (35%) by 7 points, with 17 percent undecided.

A new poll from the Public Policy Institute of California finds the candidates for governor are virtually tied, while the incumbent Democrat has a slight lead in the U.S. Senate contest, with just over a month remaining before the Nov. 2 election. The survey, released Wednesday, finds Republican Meg Whitman has 38 percent support among likely voters in the California governor's race, compared with 37 percent for her rival, Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown. About 18 percent of voters are undecided, while more than half the respondents said they were not satisfied with either choice. In the Senate race,...

JUNE PRIMARY With the June primaries less than a month away, the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination has significantly tightened. Although Meg Whitman (38%) still leads Steve Poizner (29%) among Republican primary likely voters, there has been a stunning drop in her support since March. In January, Whitman led Poizner by 30 points (41% to 11%) and in March by 50 points (61% to 11%). Today, three in 10 voters are undecided, up 6 points since March, but far lower than in January (44%). Republican primary likely voters include the 12 percent of independent (decline-to-state) voters who say they...

MAY 20, 2010 Whitman's Lead Narrows in California Race BY STU WOO Meg Whitman appears to have lost much of her wide lead in the race to be the Republican contender in California's November gubernatorial election. Two months ago, Ms. Whitman looked to be cruising toward the Republican nomination. Polls showed the former eBay Inc. chief executive leading her main opponent, state insurance commissioner Steve Poizner, by 50 percentage points. With three weeks to go before the June 8 primary, Mr. Poizner is pulling off an unexpected rally. A survey to be released Thursday shows Ms. Whitman's advantage dwindling to...

A newly released survey shows that for the first time, more Californians favor same-sex marriage than oppose it. Since the Public Policy Institute of California began tracking attitudes on same-sex marriage in the year 2000, residents in the Golden State were always more likely to express opposition. But the latest survey, released Wednesday, found that 50 percent of residents now favor it and 45 percent are against it. The findings come two years after 52 percent of California voters passed Proposition 8, a state amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The California Supreme Court...

SACRAMENTO (CBS 5 / AP) - Californians are in a dour mood, with three-quarters of adults believing the state is on the wrong course, according to a poll released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California. Residents also have little faith that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers can work together to solve the state's fiscal problems, but would favor a tax increase if the money was targeted for schools. "Residents have deep concerns about the economy and their own budgets, and they don't see how California's leaders will help guide the state through these difficult times," said Mark Baldassare,...

California’s leading public pollsters, Field Poll director Mark di Camillo and Public Policy Institute of California chief Mark Baldassare, did their usual post-election analysis at today’s monthly luncheon of the Sacramento Press Club. It was an indicative event with regard to the current state of state politics. A relative handful of those in attendance were practicing journalists, tracking the fast diminishing state of state political journalism, and most of the questions (or speeches) after the presentations were posed by non-journalists. After a lengthy awards ceremony of scholarships for the journalists of tomorrow (hmm …), the two Marks, as they are...

Two of California's top pollsters said Tuesday that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and some lawmakers are miscasting last month's special election as a clarion call against any new taxes to solve California's fiscal crisis. Instead, pollsters Mark DiCamillo and Mark Baldassare characterized the May 19 vote against five budget measures as an order to a dysfunctional state government to fix California's budget mess – and do so quickly. "We've heard a lot of people say the vote means 'no new taxes.' I would question that," said Baldassare, survey director for the Public Policy Institute of California, in the pollsters' joint appearance...

SACRAMENTO—Five of the six budget-related measures on California's May 19 special election ballot are trailing, particularly among voters who say they're closely following election news, according to a Public Policy Institute of California poll released Thursday. "The voters who are really tuned in are really turned off," said Mark Baldassare, president and chief executive officer of the San Francisco-based research organization. "They see the state's budget situation as a big problem, but so far they don't like the solution." The six propositions, put on the ballot by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers, are an attempt to deal with the state's...

California voters are standing firm in their opposition to the budget-related propositions on the May 19 ballot, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. The PPIC's latest poll mirrors previous surveys showing strong resistance to all but Proposition 1F on elected officials' pay raises. That's even though voters are split on whether the governor and the Legislature should have called the election. Here are the numbers. The rest told pollsters they haven't made up their minds. Proposition 1A: 52 percent no, 35 percent yesProposition 1B: 47 percent no, 40 percent yesProposition 1C: 58 percent no, 32 percent yesProposition 1D:...

Opposition has emerged to several ballot measures that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders believe are essential to resolving the state's massive budget deficit. There may never be a better time for opponents to pounce. Voters are angry about the economy, state budget and leadership in Sacramento, and seem willing to express their disgust through the six measures, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California, or PPIC. "I think this thing is going to go down because the people of this state have just about had it," said Ted Costa of People's Advocate, a...

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass is rounding out her leadership team. The latest additions: Paul Krekorian and John Pérez. The Public Policy Institute of California has released a survey of voters looking into why Californians voted for or against Propositions 1A (high speed rail), 4 (abortion notification), 8 (gay marriage) and 11 (redistricting). Find the full poll results on Capitol Alert's PPIC page. Most of the results are unsurprising. Evangelical Christians supported Proposition 8 at an 81 percent clip, while voters without a college degree (62 percent) were more likely to vote "yes" than college graduates (43 percent). One notable number...

California voters are worried sick about the state's economy, but they don't believe Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature can work together to solve California's fiscal problems, according to a new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California. More than 70 percent of those surveyed listed the economy and the state budget as the top problems facing California, but two-thirds were unhappy with the way the state's leaders have faced the state's policy woes, including an $11.2 billion budget deficit for the current year. "With 3 out of 4 voters putting the economy and the budget on top of...

A majority of California voters oppose Proposition 8, a ballot initiative that would ban same-sex marriage in the state, but a new statewide poll shows that the gap has narrowed in the past month. While Prop. 8 is losing with 44 percent in favor to 52 percent opposed among likely voters in the survey by the Public Policy Institute of California, opponents of the measure had a cushion of 14 percentage points, 41 to 55 percent, in a poll by the same group last month. SNIP But the battle over Prop. 8, which supporters and opponents have described as the...