Campus Center Polls Residents On Recall of Governor

From Dateline (September 11, 2003)

County residents are overwhelmingly in favor of recalling Gov. Gray Davis, according to survey results released in July by the university’s Center for Public Policy and the Orange County Business Council.
Five hundred randomly selected households were interviewed prior to state budget passage.

Of those respondents, 82 percent said they disapproved of Davis’ handling of the job of governor, and 78 disapproved of the way the state legislature is operating. Additionally, 72 percent reported that they would vote yes to remove Davis as governor. By political party, 88 percent of registered Republicans and 52 percent of registered Democrats polled stated that they would vote for the recall.

In a follow-up survey performed after the Oct. 7 special election was set, the center asked residents how they would vote for Proposition 54, the Racial Privacy Initiative. In that poll – released at the end of July – seven out of 10 individuals reported that they would vote to approve the measure. Of those who would vote yes to remove Davis from office, 71 percent said they also would vote yes on Prop. 54. Of those who would vote against the recall, 64 percent would vote in support of the proposition.

The telephone survey was conducted by the university's Social Science Research Center under the direction of Gregory Robinson.