Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger continues to enjoy high approval ratings among voters even as most think the state is heading in the wrong direction, a new poll shows.
The grim financial picture the governor presented last week, including proposed steep cuts to schools, healthcare programs and other state services, has not hurt his standing with Californians. He enjoys the approval of 60% of registered voters, according to a Times/CNN/Politico poll conducted by Opinion Research Corp. immediately after he unveiled the proposals as part of his blueprint for closing a $14.5-billion budget deficit. Interviews were conducted Friday through Sunday.
"He still rides the wave of the outsider trying to shake up the entrenched forces of government," said Barbara O'Connor, a professor of communications at Cal State Sacramento. "Voters really don't like the Legislature and tend to blame it for the state's problems, given the opportunity. They assume the governor is doing his best in an intractable situation."
Schwarzenegger's personal appeal seems to have insulated him from voter pessimism about the direction the state is heading. The poll shows that 58% of respondents think the state is on the wrong track. The negative outlook cuts across party lines.
Poll respondent Susan Erickson of Valencia, a Democrat who recently retired from her job as a supply chain manager after 35 years in the aerospace industry, said she was troubled by the governor's plan for balancing the budget but did not blame the state's fiscal problems entirely on him.
"He seems to have been more of a moderate than I expected," she said. "He is intelligent, and he has this image that I suppose is good for our state."
The generally gloomy outlook that voters have for the state, experts say, is more likely related to problems they blame on federal government mismanagement: the sub-prime loan crisis, stock market declines, a possible recession, the Iraq war.
But the governor's ability to maintain high marks from voters throughout a protracted fiscal crisis is far from certain. On Thursday, he unveiled his proposal for balancing the state's books. It includes releasing as many as 50,000 prisoners early, closing 48 state parks and cutting school spending by hundreds of dollars per child.
Schwarzenegger's vow to erase the deficit without new taxes may not sit well with voters, the poll suggests. Slightly more than half of registered voters would rather see the state collect new revenue than cut too deeply into government services.
