Poll: Schwarzenegger Faces Tough Election

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks at the National Governors Association Healthy America Forum and Winter Meeting, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2006, in Washington. U.S. governors are gathering in Washington this weekend to discuss healthcare, global economic competitiveness, international education, Medicaid reform, and emerging energy technologies. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

I think it is time for some California politics here. From Yahoo News:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Just 37 percent of California's likely voters are inclined to re-elect Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in November, a huge drop from a year ago, according to a poll released Thursday.

But the statewide Field Poll also found the Republican governor running competitively against each of the Democrats vying for their party's nomination in the June primary.

State Treasurer Phil Angelides and state Controller Steve Westly are largely unknown around the state, and about two-thirds of voters had no opinion of either one, according to the poll.

Still, the numbers signaled a difficult re-election campaign for Schwarzenegger, already disadvantaged as a Republican in a state where two-thirds of voters are Democrats or independents.

Forty-seven percent of voters said they were not inclined to vote for Schwarzenegger, who took office in November 2003 after the historic recall of Democrat Gray Davis. A year ago, 56 percent of likely voters said they were inclined to re-elect him.

Schwarzenegger's political fortunes soured as he embarked on a failed attempt to reform government last year, alienating teachers, public employee unions, Democrats and independents.

The poll showed him matching up evenly against Angelides, with 39 percent favoring each candidate. Westly held an edge of 4 percentage points over the governor. In each matchup, about one in five voters remained undecided.

More than half of likely Democratic primary voters were undecided about which candidate to support, with 26 percent backing Angelides and 18 percent backing Westly.

The poll was based on telephone surveys of 507 likely California voters conducted Feb. 12-26 and had a sampling error of 4.5 percentage points.

Looks like the Governator has got just slightly better support in the polls, than the president. I especially find it interesting that 47 percent of the voters do not intend to re-elect Schwarzenegger. That is a significant block of voters that the Governator is going to have a hard time to court. The problem here is that Schwarzenegger had pissed a lot of people, and special interest groups, when he actively campaigned for his special election initiatives last year. Somehow, I don't think the teachers, public employee unions, and both the Democrats and independents are going to come back to Schwarzenegger's open arms.

Now on the Democratic side, there really hasn't been much happening yet with the primary campaign between Angelides and Westly. As a Democrat, I haven't seen any political commercials from either candidate on television, or radio. I also haven't seen any campaign literature mailed to my place. Whatever primary campaigning that has been going on between these two, it has been quiet. That is why more than half the Democratic voters have remained undecided. When we start getting closer to the California primary election day, we'll start seeing more of Angelides and Westly.