It’s a two-step process. First, people want to know who you are, why you’re running, the whole nine yards. Then there’s the second stage, where they ask the tougher policy questions about what you believe...

As we get around to the election, voters will know which side the pharmaceutical companies will be on, and that could have a negative effect.

When politicians try to move from negative to positive, it really is a two-step process. People don’t go straight from negative to positive. They go from negative to undecided, and then maybe to positive.

Working on the infrastructure bond is a productive activity. That’s what’s improving the governor’s ratings and the Legislature’s rating.

So many voters are undecided that it’s still a wide-open race.

Some folks think a real large proportion of players were using them, and there’s widespread belief that Bonds was one of them.

Absentee voters used to be a unique demographic group. Now they’re more likely to look like the rest of the state with each passing election.

As the special election has dragged on, one of the side effects have been greater voter cynicism about the reasons the governor called the election, … The governor has never been able to sell them...

There’s not a lot of knowledge about the two initiatives. History shows that voter confusion … can lead to changes in their preferences.

The governor’s image is a negative drag and it is directly related to how people are going to vote on these propositions.

In late 1993, (Wilson) was at 31 percent, which is even lower than the governor’s numbers today, … He went on to win by 10 points in 1994. There was a lot of grumbling about...

There is a vein of the public that is leery of big industry.

Those are pretty rough numbers, the level of cynicism. He just has not communicated with voters in making his case.

They want to know more about the Democrats. They want to know which Schwarzenegger we’re talking about.

The level of concern has declined, especially compared to a decade ago. And the concern about the loss of jobs, we are definitely correlating to the unemployment rate.

The thing that’s most striking to me is the impact that Schwarzenegger himself is having on his own initiatives. It’s got to be disastrous from the governor’s standpoint.

If the opponents keep hammering away on that, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where this thing turns around.

I think it’s a two-step process and it looks like he’s successfully getting people over in terms of step one to the undecided column. But there’s a segment of voters who are withholding judgment. They...

We’re looking at things that are new and different, issues that weren’t here 10 or 15 years ago. They are transforming California.

The story is not a good one for the governor, … There seems to be a common thread across all the proposition – if Arnold Schwarzenegger has endorsed it, Democrats and nonpartisans are reacting negatively...

The voters are stepping back and want more information about the two Democrats. They don’t seem to have much of an impression.

I would suspect his tone would change significantly if they don’t make it onto the November ballot. If that happened, I could see calling the Legislature all sorts of names by the end of the...

These elected officials just can’t believe their recognition levels are so low. But this state is so big that to be known to a majority is a real accomplishment.

These Democrats are not well-known to large segments of the California electorate, so we’ll have to wait and see how they stack up,

That’s the most ominous finding. That could have a fairly significant effect on the state’s economy if retail spending starts to be hit.

The president, in our perspective, is in uncharted territory because he has a really long tenure left and yet he has very low job performance ratings in just his sixth year. Whether he is able...

She’s a very divisive figure. In my opinion, most people either like her or hate her.

There’s a clear consensus that we should give (undocumented workers) a path to citizenship. There’s bipartisan support.

Voters are saying we need someone there who’s not going to rock the boat.

When we tell voters Proposition 78 is supported by the pharmaceutical companies, it weakens support even from the people who are backing it,

That result looks very much like a partisan vote, with any Democrat grabbing that margin among Latinos. That’s an obstacle California Republicans didn’t have to face 10 or 15 years ago.

There is clear confusion on Prop. 78 as to who is backing it, which means it’s the one with the greatest potential for change in preference.

When all is said and done, there’s no Democrat on the horizon who’s the odds-on favorite and there are a lot of unknowns about the Democrats. So when you compare the governor with them, he’s...

The barrage of negative ads seems to be influencing voters and helping to defeat Proposition 79,

Generally speaking, Californians tend to be more open to allowing an individual to make a decision rather than having something prohibited through government fiat.

My interpretation is that some voters are indeed re-evaluating the governor, but they have not yet made up their minds. Last year, they saw the very partisan Republican governor. Now he seems to be a...

It’s always more difficult to change somebody’s mind once they have a negative impression of you. But he can run against an opponent and try to bring him to the same level or even a...

The last time we were this anxious about the future it preceded a few years of recession. The warning flag is out. . . . A couple years of this would lead to some economic...