The January edition of the PPIC Statewide Survey is always a popular one—especially in an election year. It gauges Californians’ reaction to the governor’s annual budget proposal and their sense of the issues that will be most important in 2014. Media coverage and audience comments at the lunchtime briefing focused particularly on the governor’s high approval ratings and his debt reduction proposals. Findings on attitudes toward the public pension situation and health care reform also generated considerable interest.
Sonja Petek, PPIC research associate and project manager for the survey, talked about these and other key findings—from Californians’ views on how the state should use the budget surplus to opinions about President Obama, Congress, and immigration policy.
Californians have consistently supported their state government in making its own policies on national issues. Past PPIC Statewide Surveys have shown that residents want the state to address global warming, and they have also favored independent state action on health care. Now there is one more issue to add to the list: immigration. Our new survey shows that 58 percent support California acting on its own to improve the lives of undocumented immigrants in our state.
It is not surprising that Californians are looking to their state government to act on key issues like climate change, health care, and immigration. Residents increasingly view state government in a more positive light than the federal government. The governor’s job approval rating, which held steady for much of 2013, has now climbed to a record-high 58 percent. The legislature’s job approval rating, at 42 percent, is at a near-record high. In contrast, Congress’ rating—which fell to a record-low 18 percent in December—is now just 26 percent. And President Obama’s approval rating is near its lowest point, at 53 percent.
Californians are also optimistic that state elected officials can work together and accomplish a lot in the next year (57%), while far fewer hold this view of their federal leaders (37%).
California’s policymakers have been in sync with state residents. They’ve taken leadership on climate change, been proactive in implementing federal health care reform, and most recently enacted a series of laws affecting undocumented immigrants. In the last year, Governor Brown signed the Trust Act, which limits the criteria by which a local law enforcement agency can comply with federal deportation hold requests. He also signed bills allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain a California driver’s licenses and be admitted as attorneys. In doing so, Brown said, “While Washington waffles on immigration, California’s forging ahead.”
With few signs of gridlock easing at the federal level and one party in control in Sacramento, it will be interesting to see where else California decides to forge ahead.
PPIC hosted a panel of leading experts on voter participation in Sacramento yesterday to talk about several important voter reforms underway. Secretary of State Debra Bowen, Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan, and California Common Cause Director Kathay Feng responded to a new report from PPIC that says a series of reforms implemented or under consideration in California would result in a small improvement in voter participation. The reforms include online voter registration (which started in 2012), election day registration (expected to start in 2016), and a later deadline for ballots submitted by mail (which is under consideration in the legislature). The PPIC report, by research fellow Eric McGhee, found that online registration changed the way people registered but was responsible for only a very small increase in voter participation.
Still, panelists were hopeful about the future of online registration. They were happy to see that nearly 1 million people used it in the first year—even, as Bowen pointed out, when there was no money to advertise the online option. Feng also said that even small improvements can make a big difference in California, where more than 5 million people are eligible but not registered to vote.
Similarly, panelists expressed optimism about same-day registration—in which voters can both register and cast ballots at a county registrar’s office on election day. They also raised concerns about the potential administrative burden this change would place on local officials. Logan said attempts are being made to modify the policy and alleviate some of the burden before the reform is scheduled to take effect.
In addition to making voting more convenient, panelists talked about the need to motivate voters. Feng pointed to concern about the “exclusive electorate,” as described in a past PPIC report showing that likely voters are far more likely to be white and older than the California voting-age population as a whole. She said it’s important to find out what turns residents off to voting, as well as what might turn them on. Bowen added that government should encourage more civic education to teach “citizens how to be citizens.”
Members of the audience asked questions about the impact of negative campaigns on voter participation, the impact of budget cuts, and the opportunities created by a new voter registration database that is scheduled to be completed in 2016.
Californians have consistently supported their state government in making its own policies on national issues. Past 