The thing that's most striking to me is the impact that Schwarzenegger himself is having on his own initiatives. It's got to be disastrous from the governor's standpoint. |
The voters are stepping back and want more information about the two Democrats. They don't seem to have much of an impression. |
There are certain segments of the population who are as concerned about this issue as they used to be and I would identify the Republicans as one of those, and then Latinos on the other side. But it falls off a great deal among others. |
There are large-scale differences between voters here (on the coast) and voters inland. Within California's borders, there's a red-state region that looks a lot like the Midwest. |
There is a vein of the public that is leery of big industry. |
There is clear confusion on Prop. 78 as to who is backing it, which means it's the one with the greatest potential for change in preference. |
There's a clear consensus that we should give (undocumented workers) a path to citizenship. There's bipartisan support. |
There's not a lot of awareness of most of the down-ballot candidates. Generally speaking, the one who are better known are in the early lead. |
There's not a lot of knowledge about the two initiatives. History shows that voter confusion ... can lead to changes in their preferences. |
These Democrats are not well-known to large segments of the California electorate, so we'll have to wait and see how they stack up, |
These elected officials just can't believe their recognition levels are so low. But this state is so big that to be known to a majority is a real accomplishment. |
they haven't made any real moves toward organizing a campaign. |
They want to know more about the Democrats. They want to know which Schwarzenegger we're talking about. |
They were just about to be voted out of office, or in the case of Richard Nixon, he was about to resign. Bush still has more than two years to go, so I think we're in somewhat uncharted territory. |
This is a group that supports very basic government services like education and health care, and they see him as someone who was talking about cutting them back. |