We had to laugh at the latest spin coming out of Team Arnold. For those of you not lucky enough to be on his email list, we share the information below. The Public Policy Institute of California poll that Todd Harris references can be found here. Among other things, it notes that about 1/3 of Californians approve of the job Schwarzenegger is doing. No wonder “Team Arnold” had to come up with something to say! Oh boy is it funny:
A Polling Reality Check
To: Supporters
From: Todd Harris
Date: August 25, 2005
Re: A polling reality check
The latest PPIC poll is a very useful document if you are interested in what people who are not even registered to vote thought about Governor Schwarzenegger two-and-a-half weeks ago. That’s right. This is hardly a snapshot of California voters today, given that they went into the field on August 8th. On top of that, almost 25% of the sample was not even registered to vote, and over half of them are not “likely” to vote.
August EIGHTH? Yeah, because the half-dozen revelations of misconduct or incompetence that have come out about Schwarzenegger between then and now clearly would have swayed more people to bestow a favorable job performance rating on him.
And the fact that Schwarzenegger’s team only cares what *likely voters* think of him says a whole lot, doesn’t it?
But wait. There’s more.
A new private poll by Public Opinion Strategies (POS) shows the Governor with a net favorable rating, with 48 percent approving, and 46 percent disapproving.
According to POS, “The Governor continues to receive very high marks from his partisan base and he also retains significant support from important swing voter groups. Seventy-eight percent of Republicans approve of his job performance while a majority of both seniors (55%) and white women (53%) are also positive toward him. Among the Independent voters the Governor’s job approval is positive, 48%-40%.”
Um, since when are seniors a swing voting bloc?
Below is a memo from pollster Neil Newhouse who recently completed the survey.
Memorandum
To: Interested Parties
From: Neil Newhouse
Re: Recent Survey Results
Date: August 24, 2005
As you know, Public Opinion Strategies recently completed a poll of 800 likely voters in California. The poll was conducted on August 14-16, 2005 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.46% in 95 out of 100 cases. The purpose of this memo is to review the job approval scores of Governor Schwarzenegger and the State Legislature.
What exactly does “95 out of 100 cases” do to the margin of error? The mind boggles.
The Bottom Line: Even after special interests groups spent millions of dollars in negative advertising attacking the Governor’s agenda, Schwarzenegger’s job approval rating remains a net positive in the state. Moreover, the Governor retains significant support with the swing voter groups that typically decide elections.
We’re not sure what exactly Team Arnold is smoking, but we’re pretty sure that they’d try to block legalizing it!