With a new poll showing his ballot agenda in jeopardy, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday made a sharp strategic shift just 12 days before the election, releasing a new television ad in which he concedes shortcomings on the job.
"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."
Calling his ballot package critical to "reforming Sacramento," the Republican governor tells viewers in the Democratic-leaning state: "Give me the tools to do the job you elected me to do."
The new ad, due to begin airing today, marked a dramatic change in tone for the governor, who has long blamed his difficulties on the fusillade of ads fired at him by organized labor.
Underscoring the reason for the switch, the new poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that none of Schwarzenegger's four major initiatives was favored by a majority of voters likely to cast ballots in the Nov. 8 election. The verdict was especially bleak on Proposition 76, Schwarzenegger's hallmark ballot measure to restrict state spending: Just 30% of likely voters supported it, while twice as many opposed it.
For a governor whose public image is the driving force in the election, the survey also found broader trouble: Just 38% of likely voters gave him positive job ratings, a steep drop from a year ago. The poll was the first independent measurement of public opinion since the full engagement of campaign advertising began.
The big questions to be answered in the campaign's final stretch are whether Schwarzenegger can quickly revive his popularity -- or get large groups of voters to overlook their disapproval of him and back at least one of his four ballot measures, said pollster Mark Baldassare of the policy institute.
"That's really the challenge," he said.
Earlier polls had found Schwarzenegger's best chance was Proposition 75, which could weaken his labor adversaries in Sacramento by requiring public-employee unions to get written permission from members each year before spending their dues on campaigns.
But amid a raging television ad battle over the measure, support for it has slid to 46% of likely voters, down from 58% in August, with 46% now opposed. The tight race -- and the political power at stake for labor and its Democratic allies -- makes Proposition 75 a central fight of the campaign's closing days.
