BERKELEY POLL SHOCK: California LOVES Trump’s Policies

Eating His Words.

During the 2016 Presidential Primary, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said the following about then-Candidate Donald Trump:

“This is a man who is out of touch with our state’s values, who doesn’t represent the initiatives that we have, and I think most importantly would be very dangerous for us economically.”

And the son of the man who couldn’t convict OJ had good reasons to believe this at the time.

Republicans have not won California in a presidential election since 1988, and the Democrats have had a lock on every statewide political office since 2010. 

Then there was the recent Associated Press story that confirmed the obvious:  Democrat voter registration in the once-Golden State is going UP, whereas Republican voter registration continues to go DOWN:

The percentage of voters registered as Democrats increased roughly 1.5 percentage points to nearly 45 percent. Republican registration declined more than two percentage points to just under 26 percent. Nearly one in four California voters are registered with no party preference.

This year is also unusual because Californians are still feeling the effects of Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential contest and are still reacting, both positively and negatively, to the results, she (Mindy Romero of UC Davis) said.

This would fall in line with the dismal headlines regarding the President’s recent approval numbers less than 100 days into his presidency.  But…this is California we are talking about, and Trump is the President…so throw conventional wisdom out the window because things are going to get a little looney.

‘California Dreamin’…of a Red State?

No…not hardly. 

But the new UC Berkeley Institute of Government Studies numbers are quite surprising. California voters want Democrats to work with the Trump Administration. The San Jose Mercury News summarizes:

The poll reveals that “by a 53% to 47% margin, slightly more voters prefer that when state leaders disagree with the president they should try to work with him even if it means making compromises, rather than opposing him if it risks negative consequences and losses in federal funding.”

Voters prefer that Democrats work with Trump even though 61% disapprove of the job he is doing, according to the poll, which surveyed 1,000 registered voters and has a margin of error of 3.6%.

Californians reject “CalExit” and proposals to secede from the Union by more than a two-to-one margin, 68% to 32%. Republicans (85% no, 15% yes) are more opposed than Democrats (56% no, 44% yes) to seceding.

California voters approve of Trump’s policies on infrastructure, the economy and jobs — and disapprove of his policies on every other issue. Trump rated lowest on his policies on the environment, and on minority groups.

38% of California’s registered voters approving of his illegal immigration policies and 49% disapproving.

Mark DiCamillo, the Director of the poll, added further insights to the Sacramento Bee:

“Nonpartisan voters typically show you which way the wind is blowing. That’s what’s revealing to me here,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the poll. He noted that Brown has come to transcend his party in many respects.

Asked to assess a dozen policy areas under Trump, more Californians foresee negative consequences in 10 of the sectors, including preventing terrorist attacks, energy production, illegal immigration, health care and the rights of minorities.

Two categories where Trump’s proposed changes in federal laws and policies are seen as more positive than negative relate to his pledges to improve highways, bridges and dams and on how he’ll handle jobs and the economy.

“It’s the Economy Stu…” (Eh You Already Know Cliché)

Even the far-Left Coast of California is slowly beginning to wake from their socio-progressive stupor and are starting to think with their wallets.  

Californians have the highest average median income in the country. Despite that, as the Silicon Valley Business Journal learned, all that glitters isn’t always gold:

At $94,572, the region’s 2013 median household income dwarfed both California’s statewide $61,320 median and the nationwide $53,291 median, according to a new analysis of federal data by think tank Joint Venture Silicon Valley. The proportion of households in Silicon Valley bringing in more than $150,000 per year also jumped from 26 percent to 29 percent last year.

That increase reflects the dynamism of a market rapidly adding high-paying jobs in fields like engineering and finance. But that picture of prosperity is clouded by declining economic mobility for those in lower-wage jobs and a decline in middle-class jobs, which doesn’t mesh well with skyrocketing costs of living.

Supply and Demand. Inflationary cost of living adjustments (COLA). Lack of available disposable income. Wiping out of the middle class.

And while Californians earn the highest salaries, they also contend with:

• Four out of the top ten most expensive cities, for home renters in America, are in California (with San Francisco holding the #1 spot),
• Gas prices are notoriously high, currently at $3/gallon.
• The two major university systems are raising their tuition costs (again)! The California-State system now charges $5,700/year; whereas the University of California system just rose their tuition rates to 11,500/year.
• The $300 billion California Public Employees Retirement Service (CalPERS) has been paying more than it’s been taking in, and is now going to lower its return rates by 7%. And that’s not accounting for the pension’s current estimated debt of $450 billion!
• Governor Moonbeam’s $64 billion dream project, high-speed rail to nowhere, continues uninhibited. A $1 billion portion of the HSR was awarded to Perini-Zachary-Parsons, a construction group partially owned by billionaire financier Richard Blum, who happens to be the husband of Dianne Feinstein!  This boondoggle is turning into the California version of the Big Dig.
• Despite calls for new modern water storage, California’s lawmakers still have not learned their lessons from the recent droughts. When California infrastructure was last modernized in the 1960s, California’s population was over 16 million residents; 50 years later the current population is 39.1 million.

In other words, the State is a mess.

“Never Let An Opportunity Go to Waste.”  Unless You’re A California Republican.

This poll should be ‘required reading’ for every Republican political candidate and political consultant in the State going into 2018.  These results could be used to establish a political foundation with many messages. Like ‘working in a bipartisan manner’ to ‘improve the economy,’ ‘increase jobs,’ ‘improve infrastructure,’ and ‘practicing fiscal responsibility.’ But the California Republican Party is a mess, nearly broke. Further, the party has been written off as irrelevant by the State’s media.

The top three potential gubernatorial candidates, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer will not commit, former-Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin has said she is not interested in running, and businessman Peter Thiel continues to stumble out of the gates.

The State Party needs to be competitive in 2018 or risk getting shut out like what happened in 2016. It must knuckle up and start going on the political offensive or it will get passed by again.

President Trump has provided a blueprint of key issues for Republicans. He accomplished this despite the lack of support from much of the State’s GOP stalwarts. Regardless, now Republicans can pursue the ever growing Independents, and the remaining handful of the State’s Blue-Dog Democrats.

Or, they can continue to fight amongst themselves for the remaining scraps within their ever shrinking gerrymandered district fiefdoms.