PPIC Releases Mass of Data: Good News/Bad News

The Public Policy Institute of California has released their statewide survey, and it contains a slew of data, from approval ratings, to opinions on structural reform. (Full PDF Report here)

I won’t go through the full litany of approval scores, but it is worth mentioning that the approval ratings for both the President and Congress are down since the May Statewide survey.  A very large chunk of that is coming from Democrats. In other words, the President, with his failure to clearly state his position is losing his base. Now, this data is obviously from before the speech on Wednesday, but I doubt the numbers would move all the way back to May numbers.  What President Obama needs to do is to actually get real health care reform. Anything less and we could be in for an ugly midterm election. And for electoral purposes, it’s good to see Sen. Boxer over 50%.

On the state side, yeah, pretty much everybody hates both the Legislature and the Governor. The ratings are relatively flat, with Arnold at just over thirty percent, and the Leg just over 20.  The more interesting data came from the structural side, with a bit of contradictory data thrown in for some added spice. Voters want to change the 2/3 budget rule by a count of 54-40. Now, PPIC asked about 55 percent, but I wouldn’t really expect majority to be all that different given other polling I’ve seen. For some reason, it appears the revenue question was skipped for the Prop 218 question. That is whether local taxes should only require a reduced super majority, which was favored by 50% in the poll.

Given the lack of trust in the legislature, it wasn’t surprising to see the support for term limits over 60% and the support for initiatives as better policy making venues than the legislature.  Apparently a few Californians think we live in Athens circa 400 BCE.

Anyway, check the full poll out, and point out your favorite fun fact in the comments.

2 thoughts on “PPIC Releases Mass of Data: Good News/Bad News”

  1. …only 23% think that stupid, idiotic, wacko part-time legislature idea is worth backing, and 44% of people think it sucks.

  2. Which fittingly enough, would be just four years after they surrendered to Sparta and its allies at the end of the Peloponnesean War.

    Because if California keeps its current initiative system, like the Athenians of 400BCE, we too will be huge losers.

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