Pew came out with a detailed poll of Californian's attitudes towards, well, just about everything today. (Except, oddly enough, marijuana legalization). They asked forty one different detailed policy questions of 1706 California adults.
Here's the one concerning whether they want to be f****ed:
Do you favor or oppose increased use of fracking, a drilling method that uses high pressure water and chemicals to extract oil and natural gas from underground rock formations?
Favor: 39%
Oppose: 47%
Don't Know: 14%
And here's one on global warming:
Do you think that global warming will pose a serious threat to you or your way of life in your lifetime?
Yes: 57%
No: 39%
Don't Know: 4%
If Californian's aren't in favor of fracking to get at oil and natural gas, and they believe that global warming is a serious, fairly immediate threat, you might think they'd also be opposed to the Keystone pipeline. And yet
Do you favor or oppose building the Keystone XL pipeline that would transport oil from Canada’s oil sands region through the Midwest to refineries in Texas?
Favor: 53%
Oppose: 35%
Don't Know: 12%
I approach despair: if Bill McKibben has not been able to convince even his own birth state - one which would not benefit economically from the pipeline and is generally considered environmentally savvy - that Keystone XL is bad, what hope is there?
What else do Californians think?
Californians say there are too many initiatives on the ballot (70%-25%), but favor having voters renew initiatives after a certain number of years by voting on them again (64%-29%).
We are massively in favor of background checks prior to gun ownership (89%-10%); only 18% of Californians say there is a gun, rifle or pistol in their home (which would suggest an even small percentage own a weapon -half of them probably live in Oakland...).
Californians are much more likely to be Democrats (44%) than Republicans (29%), and even more likely to think of themselves as closer to the Democratic party (47%) than the Republican party (22%). So while 29% of Californians are registered Republicans, only 22% think of themselves basically as a Republican! Perhaps the California Republican Party (if it still exists) should think about this.
Californians like them their Proposition 13 (severely limiting increases in real estate taxes) (58%-27%), but - and this may prove to be very important in 2014 or 2016 as a ballot initiative - we also favor taxing commerical properties at their current market value.
Under Proposition 13, residential and commercial property taxes are both strictly limited. What do you think about having commercial properties taxed according to their current market value? Do you favor or oppose this proposal?
Favor: 58%
Oppose: 33%
Don't Know: 9%
By an almost 2:1 margin, Californians think immigrants are a benefit to our state (61%-33%), and even some of those that don't think so think that immigrants currently living in the United States illegally should be given either a path to citizenship or the chance to stay in the country legally (78%-18%). Wow.
Finally, Californians are now overwhelmingly in favor of same-sex marriage (56%-38%) and there is no doubt in my mind we would vote to overturn Proposition 8 were it to come down to that. We're going to know whether that will be necessary in about a month.
Check out the entire survey here (pdf).