New Field Poll of California Voters on Budget: Most Say It's a Serious Problem and Tend to Blame Republicans

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

The California Field Poll has just released a survey taken earlier this month that has some seemingly inconsistent but curious findings that bear scrutiny and attention.

Registered Voters Feel This is a Serious Problem

Perhaps the most significant finding is that a pretty hefty number of registered voters, 81% feel that this impasse is either a "very serious" (43%) or "somewhat serious" problem versus 17% who say it is "not serious." Even considering the margin of error (4.5%), more Democrats view the situation as serious (84% to 15%) than Republicans (80% to 20%).

For those who are paying a lot of attention, the numbers are astronomical--74% view it as "very serious" and 17% as somewhat serious, combining to 91%, with only 9% not viewing it as serious. Not surprisingly, the numbers are lower for those who are paying "little or no" attention to the budget crisis, but even there, 36% describe it as "very serious" and another 42% as somewhat serious" combining to 78% whereas only 19% of this group feels it is "not serious."

But Most Are Not Giving This Great Attention

Depending on how you look at this, 12% are giving "a lot" of attention to this while another 37% are giving it "some attention," combining to 49% while 34% are giving it "a little" attention and 17% report "none," combining to 51%.

This leads Mark Di Camillo of the Field Poll to state with the issuance of the poll: "While the delay has stirred the Sacramento political community, the state's voters are not paying a lot of attention to the fact that no budget has been in place for the first seven weeks of the current fiscal year."

This may be taken with a grain of salt, since the poll was conducted between August 3 when the calling started and was wrapped up by August 12 when those who did not respond to previous calls were contacted. One would expect, as is consistent with other data from prior polls, that the longer this impasse continues, the more folks will pay attention. And with basically half of all registered voters paying at least some attention to this in the middle of the summer (with vacations and all) this could be considered a high level of following for any state issue. Presumably, likely voters would report even a higher level of following this. The question asked was: "Over the past few months, how much attention have you been giving to reports from Sacramento about the Governor and state legislature’s efforts to pass a state budget for next year…" [Emphasis added.]