I want to be wrong. I want to be wrong! But my gut feeling about 2006 is very, very negative. And its not just an emotional reaction about tonight’s election results.

First, I have to disagree with my colleague Dan Schnur about the Governor’s re-election chances for next year. Having been swept tonight by California’s voters, an already uphill fight next year, in my mind, is essentially decided. I mean, how can a political team that took him from a 73% approval rating to 37% be trusted to reverse course next year in the face of the same intense opposition? Unless there is a total housecleaning in the political shop, there is minimal chance of re-election. How much money will it take to buy Arnold’s approval rating back up to 50%, drive unknown quantities Westly or Angelides negatives to over 50%, and talk about issues? Me thinks more than Arnold can raise. I want to be wrong, but its probably not a stretch to say that his fundraising capabilities have just taken a beating for next year along with the initiatives tonight.

Second, I think a case can be made, in a cruel way, that the Governor’s early successes hurt him in… Read More

When I was eleven years old and my baseball team was playing for the Little League city championship. My team lost. Losing sucks, but as the coach pointed out to a bunch of disappointed kids, not making it to the championship games sucks more.

Because we, the active members of the State GOP, banded together two years ago to rid ourselves of a failed Governor, we had the opportunity to make this election happen. If the Gray Davis machine was still in charge, today would have just been another overcast day in Southern California. We lost in the vote count, but many have won where it really counts, in the union’s bank account.

The unions are financially crippled because the Governor made this election happen. I want to be at the next CTA convention where it is announced that yet another special dues assessment is going to be added to pay for this election. When SEIU workers are told that the cost of their purple tee-shirts have doubled, there is going to be hell to pay. When IBEW members have an extra $50 bucks taken out of their checks- watch out- because beer money is beer money. Even the unions have a limit of what they… Read More

Measure D — the attempt by the Orange County firefighters union to grab a portion of future growth in Prop. 172 public safety funds for themselves — is going down to an overwhelming defeat.

The first absentees are in, and it ain’t pretty for the firefighters:

There is no way the OCPFA (the firefighters union) side can overcome that kind of gap with Election Day votes.

This is a big loss for the… Read More

Don’t get me wrong I’m still ticked at pollsters. One other political story caught my eye.

However,one other political item caught my attention. Liberal Democrats always try to limit our opportunities, while Republicans are the party of Hope and Opportunity.

Liberals just don’t know how to reach Conservatives.When I read an account of the Breasts not Bombs" protest in Sacramento yesterday. Read it here.

I just don’t get why we have to limit ourselves so? Why not both?… Read More

I’ll leave the pollsters alone in this blog (as long as we are allowedopen season on them in the not-too-distant future).

But, speaking of Prop 73 (see Matt Cunningham’s prior post), I heard a pastor talk to his congregation about it on Sunday. Although he did not expressly advocate for it, you can’t be too careful these days, so I won’t mention the church (I hope no jack-booted IRS thugs show up at my doorstep asking questions after this).

It was the way this pastor said it, and I paraphrase:

"Whether you think Arnold Schwarzenegger or Warren Beatty is the celebrity that best knows the issues, that’s up to you," he said in jest. But, when it comes to Proposition 73, the school won’t even give a band-aid to my daughter without calling me….so I can’t even imagine when it comes to a medical procedure. "I’m not telling you how to vote or anything. But if you want to know more about the issue, you can go to our church website, and we have a link to YES ON 73, and you can read more about it."

You gotta… Read More

Last night, I attended a private event in San Francisco, a reception with Helen Thomas, the veteran UPI reporter who covered the White House for nearly 40 years. After we mixed and mingled, Thomas gave a speech and took Q&A from the audience.

I expected Thomas’ speech to be an interesting journey through the administrations of the eight presidents she covered—Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton. And while I expected Thomas’ politics to be left of center, what I was not prepared for was the vitriolic speech she gave against President Bush.

Before Thomas started her speech, she was introduced by a founding partner of the hosting firm who reminded her that the audience was of mixed political views. She clearly didn’t care.… Read More

My good friend and fellow FR contributor Mike Spence has suggested each of us in the arena of public opinion should find ourselves in the fiery depths of whatever afterlife awaits evil researchers.

While I may take issue with the methodology used by many of the pollsters that have released results this cycle and I will talk more about this in an election analysis piece in the near future, the bottom line is, we are researchers. We just call it like we see it. If you want to blame someone, how about the media for blindly publishing our work product.

NOTE: I mean no disrespect to the various news outlets that publish and broadcast my results after careful consideration. … Read More

Shakespeare may have hated lawyers, but there was not much polling goingon by the monarchy at the time. I think he might have thought otherwise if there had been pollsters then.

I have to admit I have hired pollsters and even repeated their findings. I apologize.

After seeing Bill Whalen’s piece on new poll numbers hereand last weeks here. Then reading FlashReports exclusive interview with Arnie Steinberg here as well as LA Times, PPIC, Field, Survey USA polls and the elusive CRP/Arnold Internal polling, I have concluded they should all go. Most will have been shown to be wrong by some degree today.

Also, the real focus on pollsleaves public policy behind and focuses discussion onthe numbers . Our ideas are right regardless of the polling. But, if all we talk… Read More