Californians Aren't Wild About Schwarzenegger or His 'Reforms'

Sacramento — It's not working. Not any of it. Not the rallies. Not the talk radio. Not the photo ops. Not the TV ads.

Especially not the record fundraising.

Here's a governor trying to sell himself as a "reformer" and raising political pot loads from special interests, much of it out of state. It gives new meaning to the term "political outsider."

"People don't want him in Florida raising money. They want him here fixing problems," says Republican political analyst Tony Quinn. "It's something these politicians don't seem to understand. As he raises special interest money, his mystique with the voters drops. Gray Davis is the best example of that."

Ask pollster Mark Baldassare to describe the current attitude of Californians toward Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and he replies without hesitation: "Disappointment."

People are disappointed in all of Sacramento, the pollster adds. They had been hopeful after the Davis recall. Now they're back being grouchy.

Baldassare, who polls for the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, released a new survey Wednesday. About the only good news for Schwarzenegger is that he hasn't fallen farther into the tank than he was a month ago. But he hasn't started to climb out either.

Some key findings:

* Only 40% of adults approve of how Schwarzenegger is handling his job, compared with 60% in January and 64% a year ago.

* The Legislature shouldn't gloat. Its approval rating is even lower, at 26%, the lowest since the 2003 recall campaign. A year ago, it was 40%.

So there's a cause-and-effect here that's easy to see: Schwarzenegger constantly ridicules the Legislature. Democrats continually attack him. Both sides are effective, in a murder-suicide sort of way. Schwarzenegger also picked a fight with teachers, nurses, firefighters and cop unions and got badly beaten up.

* The public mood is sour; 57% think California is headed in "the wrong direction," up 13 points from a year ago.

* Schwarzenegger's idea of a special election, costing $70-million-plus in tax money, is very unpopular. Only 33% support it, down 12 points since January. Another 61% want to wait until the next regular election in June 2006 to vote on the governor's "reforms."

But Schwarzenegger sees himself leading a people's rebellion to force government reform. He warned legislators in his State of the State speech that if they together didn't reform government, "the people will rise up and reform it themselves. And I will fight with them."