Schwarzenegger’s Approval Rating Slipping, Poll Says

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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s job approval rating remains high, but his support has slipped from the lofty levels during his first year in office, according to a poll released on Wednesday.


A majority of California voters also believe the state is moving in the wrong direction, according to The Field Poll, put together by the non-partisan Field Research Corp.


The poll found 55 percent of registered California voters approve of Schwarzenegger’s job performance and 35 percent disapprove. In September, 65 percent of voters said they approved of how Schwarzenegger oversaw the state government, versus 22 percent who said they disapproved.


The poll found that in Schwarzenegger’s first 14 months of office, voters of all parties had a favorable assessment of his performance. Now, Democrats view his performance more negatively than positively, partisans are divided, and Republicans have maintained their overwhelming approval of the governor.


A large majority of Democrats thinks Schwarzenegger mainly caters to special interests, but an even larger number of Republicans say he is guided more by the public interest, said the poll. Non-partisans are more mixed on the issue.


Californians’ assessment of the direction the state is heading has taken a negative turn over the past five months. Among registered voters, 53 percent believe the Golden State is seriously off on the wrong track, compared to 35 percent who feel the state is moving in the right direction,

The survey found Californians’ view of the direction their state is heading has taken a negative turn over the past five months, with 53 percent of voters saying it is on the wrong track, compared with 35 percent who think it is moving in the right direction a significant decline from the public’s more positive assessment of the state’s overall direction last fall.


The Field Poll’s findings are based on a telephone survey of 1,009 adult Californians, 800 of them reporting as registered voters, in English and Spanish from Feb. 8 to Feb. 17. Results based on interviews with registered voters have a sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

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