The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) released a poll today that focused mainly on environmental attitudes in CA, but also polled the Governors race, the US Senate race and Bush's approval.
The entire poll can be found here.
It shows that Phil Angelides has a lot of work to do (Volunteer - Contribute), trailing by 13, Diane Feinstein is well below 50% for her re-elect but is ahead of her GOP opponent by 21 points and that Bush is Bush. There are also interesting numbers on enviromental attitudes in CA. More below the fold.
Governor's Race:
Schwarzenegger (R) 43%
Phil Angelides (D) 30%
Peter Camejo (G) 4%
Don't know 19%
Schwarzenegger has the support of 79% of Republicans, and independents favor him by an 18-point margin (43-25) over Angelides. Only 54% of Democrats support Angelides.
US Senate Race:
Dianne Feinstein (D) 42%
Richard 'Dick' Mountjoy (R) 21%
Todd Chretien (G) 5%
Michael S. Metti (L) 5%
Don Grundmann (AI) 4%
Someone else 2%
Don't know 21%
Feinstein currently leads Republican challenger Dick Mountjoy by a 21-point margin, with nearly four in ten voters undecided or opting for other candidates. Feinstein has the support of 67% of Dems and leads with independents, 39-13. Mountjoy is favored by 47% of Republicans.
I suspect Feinstein's weakness among Dems is a reflection of her stance on Iraq and a general lack of interest in this race. Mountjoy is not a viable candidate with only $20,000 (yes only $20K) versus $8 million COH for DiFi. Above and beyond that, he is the very caricature of the obnoxious, know-it-all, loud and wrong, Republican.
George Bush:
"Overall, do you approve or disapprove of the way that George W. Bush is handling his job as President of the United State?"
Approve 36%
Disapprove 59%
Don't know 5%
Six in 10 California adults (59%) and likely voters (61%) say they disapprove of the way that George W. Bush is handling his job as president. The president's approval rating today among all adults.
The president's approval rating in California today is lower than it is at the national level, as indicated in a recent Gallup Poll (40% approve, 55% disapprove).
Sharp partisan differences are evident among Californians' opinions of the president's overall job performance:
Republicans (71% approve), Democrats (13% approve), independents (27% approve).
Across racial/ethnic groups, majorities disapprove of President Bush's performance, with blacks (81% disapprove) more negative in their appraisal of the president than Latinos (57%), whites (58%), and Asians (58%).
More than six in 10 residents in the San Francisco Bay Area (68%) and Los Angeles (62%) say they disapprove of the way the president is handling his job, compared to about half of the residents in other areas. Disapproval of the president's job performance increases with education but varies little by income, age, or gender.
Environmental Attitudes:
These number are heartening with Prop 87, the alternative energy research, production, incentives and tax on CA oil standing at 61% with only 23% opposed.
Proposition 87 is a citizens' initiative on the November ballot that would establish a $4 billion program to reduce oil and gasoline usage by 25 percent, with research and production incentives for alternative energy, funded by a tax of 1.5 to 6 percent on the price per barrel of oil extracted from California.
More than six in 10 Democrats (67%) and independents (63%) and a bare majority of Republicans (51%) favor this initiative.
Majorities of likely voters support this measure across the state's major regions (San Francisco Bay Area, 66%; Inland Empire, 64%; Los Angeles, 61%; Orange/San Diego, 59%; Central Valley, 55%).
Latinos (66%) are more likely than whites (60%) to say they would vote yes on Proposition 87. There are few differences across education, gender, or income groups, however, support for Proposition 87 declines with age (ages 18 to 34, 71%; 35 to 54, 62%; 55 and older, 57%).
In addition to strongly supporting policies to reduce the demand for fossil fuels, most Californians are also in favor of spending more government funds to develop alternative sources of energy.
More than eight in 10 adults (81%) and likely voters (86%) favor spending more government money to develop alternative energy sources for automobiles, while few in each group oppose such a program.
Across regions, support is highest in the San Francisco Bay Area (86%), and is also high in the Inland Empire (82%), the Central Valley (80%), Orange/San Diego Counties
(80%), and Los Angeles (78%). Across racial/ethnic groups, whites (88%) and Asians (85%) are most supportive of this energy policy proposal, while support is also high among blacks (74%) and Latinos (69%). Support for this policy increases with education and income.