CALIFORNIA NEWS
Will Gov. Newsom Survive the Recall? By Phil Trounstine and Jerry Roberts Editor’s note: People seeking to recall Gov. Newsom have until March 17 to collect the 1,495,709 signatures needed to trigger a recall election. If they turn in enough valid signatures, a recall election would take place 60 to 80 days of signatures being verified. Longtime political experts Phil Trounstine of Aptos and Jerry Roberts wrote this analysis for CalBuzz.com ••• few months ago, when the Coronavirus pandemic was just getting real, a majority of Californians thought Gov. Gavin Newsom was doing a good job of managing the crisis. Not so much anymore. Today, only 31% of California voters give Newsom good or excellent marks for handling the “coronavirus pandemic” in a survey by Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, compared to 43% who give him poor or very poor marks. And in the poll by the Public Policy Institute of California, registered voters
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What it Means for Recall are split almost equally with 49% approving and 46% disapll of which suggests the proving Newsom’s handling drive to recall Newsom of the “coronavirus outbreak.” is likely to get on the ballot Which is why Newsom’s because Republicans hate his overall approval rating has guts. dipped to 46% among regisHowever, Prince Gavin tered voters in the IGS Poll and is likely to survive a recall 50% among registered voters because Republican partisans in the survey from PPIC. represent only a small portion Much has been made of of California voters. Gavin Newsom the difference between the Our old friend George findings of the two polls in part because Skelton at the LA Times, along with Ben IGS gave results for registered voters Christopher at CalMatters and Jeremy (46%) while PPIC focused on results White at Politico have already done from likely voters (52%). some fine reporting and commentary But if you compare apples to apples on Newsom’s standing in the polls and – registered voters — the two polls are his chances in a recall election. They only about 4 percentage points apart on rely somewhat on analyses from Mark Newsom’s overall performance. DiCamillo and Co. at IGS and Mark BalBottom line, voters are not particu- dassare at PPIC. larly happy with Newsom these days IGS said, in part: and his handling of the coronavirus Fueling the decline is the public’s pandemic/outbreak is the main reason. much more negative assessment (Also: rank partisanship abides). of the way Newsom and state
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government are handling the pandemic. The latest poll finds fewer than one in three Californians (31%) rating Newsom as doing an excellent or good job in handling the pandemic overall, down from 49% last September. Also, just 22% offer a positive rating of the job he and state government are doing in overseeing the distribution of the coronavirus vaccines to the public. In addition, only about half (47%) have a great deal or some trust in the way the governor and state government are setting the rules when issuing stay-at-home orders or setting guidelines for business to follow to slow the spread of the virus, with majorities describing them as inconsistent (62%), confusing (60%) and ineffective (53%). While PPIC said: “Recall” page 23
www.tpgonlinedaily.com Aptos Times / March 1st 2021 / 21
