Posted on August 23rd, 2007 — in Ballot Measures :: National Affairs :: Politics :: Polls and Surveys
Another initiative currently circulating that could appear on the ballot in June 2008 would institute drastic reform of the way California elects the president every four years. As the language of the ballot measure puts it,
Under the initiative, an elector would be required to be a member of the political party that nominates the elector at the time of the nomination and during the 4 years preceding the nomination, unless the political party was not registered as a party during that period. The initiative would require each elector nominee to sign a pledge that he or she will cast his or her ballot for the candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States who receive the plurality of votes in the congressional district in which the elector is nominated, or who receive the plurality of votes in the state in the case of the two electors selected on a statewide basis, unless those candidates are no longer alive at the time the elector’s vote is cast.
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Posted on August 17th, 2007 — in National Affairs :: Politics :: Polls and Surveys
A new Field Poll today shows Hillary Clinton with a widening lead over her rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination among likely voters in California. Since March, Clinton’s lead has expanded from 41% to 49%, while her closest rival, Barack Obama, has declined from 28% to 19%. John Edwards, the next-closest contender, has declined from 13% to 10%. All other Democratic presidential candidates are supported in numbers less than 5%.
Posted on August 16th, 2007 — in National Affairs :: Politics :: Polls and Surveys
Yet another Field Poll, out today, shows Giuliani holding onto solid support as the leading contender for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008, with 35%. The next three candidates behind Giuliani don’t even have half that much support. Mitt Romney comes in second with 14%. Fred Thompson, who hasn’t officially declared his candidacy yet but is expected to do so sometime next month, is third with 13%.
John McCain, who had 24% support the last time the presidential preference poll was taken in March, has plummeted to fourth, with 9%. The fifth candidate, Tom Tancredo, is way behind at 3%. Five other candidates register at 2% or less.
One potential stumbling block for Giuliani is that his support appears to be wide but not that deep. Among likely voters who say that they are following the presidential race closely, Giuliani’s lead over Romney and Thompson is much narrower (a margin of 14-15 percentage points, still significant, but not insurmountable).
Posted on August 15th, 2007 — in National Affairs :: Polls and Surveys
Another new Field Poll came out today. Its findings: Californians’ views of President Bush’s performance are virtually unchanged since a similar poll was conducted in March, with 26% of registered voters saying that they approve the job that he is doing.
According to an article in the Sacramento Bee, until this most recent poll, California’s opinion of the president’s performance had been about 10 points more negative than that of the national electorate as a whole. That is no longer true. A CBS News/New York Times poll released yesterday, for instance, shows only 29% of voters nationwide approve of Bush’s performance. As a point of comparison, the last president to have approval ratings as low as or lower than Bush was Richard Nixon, whose approval sunk to 24% in the days just before he resigned in August 1974.
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