California Sours On Trump, Including Some Of His Base

LOS ANGELES, CA — The presidential election is almost three months away, but Golden State voters are already fired up, according to a new poll out this week.

So what has the bluest of states so fired up? A chance to vote for Former Vice President Joe Biden? The two or three competitive congressional races (Districts 21, 25 and maybe 28)? Any of the 12 statewide ballot measures ranging from affirmative action to consumer privacy, property tax increases or voting rights for 17-year-olds and parolees?

According to a new poll from UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, California voters are looking forward to voting against President Donald Trump in record numbers. He already holds the state record for a landslide loss in a presidential race having lost to Hillary Clinton in California by 30 percent. But he’s poised to break his own record, according to the Berkeley poll. The poll has the president trailing Biden in California by 39 points, 28 percent to 67 percent. His dismal polling in California stems largely from declining approval ratings among independent voters and Republican voters.

“There was a question of whether his support was already so low in the state that it couldn’t go lower,” said Berkeley political scientist Eric Schickler, co-director of the Institute of Governmental Studies told the Los Angeles Times, adding the poll “shows the answer is no.”

Schickler said it's notable that Trump is polling poorly with all racial groups in California.

“Biden’s overwhelming support across all racial groups is striking. He leads by at least a two-to-one margin among white voters, Latinos, Black voters and Asian Americans," he said. "In many states, white voters are closely divided and there are big differences in the views of President Trump across racial groups. Not so in California."

According to the poll, Trump's standing with California voters has slipped notably in the past six months. Just 29% of registered voters now say they approve of the job Trump is doing as president while 71% disapprove. Among those who disapprove, 63% disapprove strongly, up 6 percentage points from January.

His approval rating is largely tied with attitudes about his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump theoretically has just under three months to turn it around, but in reality, a significant proportion of California voters could be casting their mail-in ballots a full month before the election.

Due to the pandemic, all registered voters will receive mail-in ballots. Each county is required to start mailing out the ballots by Oct. 5, and some counties may send them out even sooner, according to the Secretary of State’s office.

In addition to local elections, California voters will be choosing 53 of California's seats in the House of Representatives, 80 state assembly seats, 20 state senate seats, and 12 statewide ballot measures.

Key Election Dates

• Your deadline to register to vote is Oct. 19. You can register to vote here.
• Your vote by mail request must be postmarked by Oct. 27. You can apply here to vote by mail.
• Election Day is Nov. 3, and the polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. You can find your polling place through your county's elections website.
• Vote-by-mail ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 3, and received no later than Nov. 20.

The Statewide Propositions

• Proposition 14 would authorize California to issue $5.5 billion in bonds to fund stem cell and other medical research.
• Proposition 15 is the 'Split roll' measure that would roll back Prop. 13 protections for commercial properties and industrial real estate worth more than $3 million, requiring owners to pay property taxes according to the market rate value.
• Proposition 16 would end California’s ban on affirmative action. Ending the ban would enable schools and public agencies to consider factors such as race, ethnicity and gender in hiring decisions and admissions.
• Proposition 17 is a constitutional amendment that would allow parolees with felony convictions to vote while still on parole.
• Proposition 18 is another constitutional amendment. It would give voting rights to 17-year-olds in primaries or special elections if they will be 18 by the time the general election rolls around.
• Proposition 19 is another constitutional amendment. It tweaks California’s famed property tax law by enabling homeowners to transfer part of their property tax base when they sell and buy a new home. It would also prevent people who inherit property from benefiting from the low property tax base unless the home is worth less than $1 million and unless they live in the home.
• Proposition 20 is a measure that would reverse some of California’s criminal sentencing laws to give judges leeway to make certain misdemeanors felonies, limit parole eligibility for a number of crimes such as drug-related, thefts of violent offenses, and require many convicts to submit samples for DNA databases.
• Proposition 21 would give municipalities more authority to enact rent control policies.
• Proposition 22 aims to classify gig workers such as app delivery drivers and rideshare drivers as contract workers who would not receive regular employee benefits.
• Proposition 23 affects dialysis clinics, requiring them to have doctors or nurses on-hand, report to the state, and limit their ability to reject patients for payment.
• Proposition 24 would empower Californians to stop companies from sharing their personal information and it would create an agency to enforce the law.
• Proposition 25 would repeal California’s new law ending cash bail.