September 8, 2006

Governor finds strong support in Sacramento

Full Report

A new survey shows Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is more popular in the Sacramento region than in California as a whole, although approval varies greatly along racial, political party and county lines.

The survey, conducted by Sacramento State Professor Amy Liu and students through the University’s Institute for Social Research, showed that nearly half of Sacramento region residents (49 percent) shared positive views of the governor’s job performance versus 35 percent of the residents in California. White residents (56 percent) and Republican voters (79 percent) were much more likely to regard his job performance positively than other racial groups (30 percent) and Democrats (28 percent).

The survey also found that a majority of residents in El Dorado (62 percent) and Placer (59 percent) counties found the governor’s leadership commendable, while 45 percent of Sacramento and 42 percent of Yolo counties said they did not approve of the way Schwarzenegger handled his job.
However, the Sacramento region’s support of the governor has made a sharp decline in the past two years. Gov. Schwarzenegger enjoyed a 65 percent approval rating in the region in 2004 as opposed to the recent 49 percent.

Other findings include:

• Gov. Schwarzenegger is more popular than the specific issues he addresses. Fully 59 percent of Sacramento area residents disapprove of how he handles public education, and approximately half dislike how he deals with affordable housing (52 percent) and the state budget (50 percent).
• The governor’s chance of being re-elected to office differs greatly along political party lines. A majority of Republicans (67 percent) would vote for Gov. Schwarzenegger, while only 10 percent of Democratic and 26 percent of other registered voters would. More than half of Democratic voters (54 percent) would vote for the Democratic nominee and 45 percent of other voters would vote for any other nominee.
• Since the governor declared a state of emergency for the levees in the Central Valley, the approval rating in the Sacramento region for how he is dealing with flood control has risen. Before the declaration, 37 percent of residents approve of how he handled flood control, 36 percent didn’t approve and 27 percent said they didn’t know. After the declaration, 53 percent of residents approve of his efforts to protect California from floods and only 15 percent don’t know about his performance on that issue.

The survey was a computer-assisted telephone interview of 1,122 randomly selected households in Sacramento, Yolo, Placer and El Dorado counties. It has a margin of error of 3 percent.

More information is available by contacting Liu at amyliuus@yahoo.com or (916) 278-7572.

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