Schwarzenegger with 8-point lead over challenger

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Arnold Schwarzenegger,
California’s Republican governor, holds an eight-point lead
over Democratic challenger and state Treasurer Phil Angelides
in their race for the governor’s office, the Field Poll
reported on Tuesday.

The latest Field Poll found 45 percent of likely voters
favor Schwarzenegger for re-election in November with Angelides
getting 37 percent.

The Field Poll mirrors another poll released earlier this
month by the Survey and Policy Research Institute of San Jose
State University. It found Schwarzenegger leading Angelides by
44 percent to 37 percent, helped by improved standing among
moderate and independent voters.

“The public is little more optimistic about the future of
California and giving the governor a little more credit,” said
Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll.

Analysts expect a brutal campaign. Angelides has been one
of Schwarzenegger’s harshest partisan critics and last year
jumped in front of the former body building champion in voter
preference amid a controversial and unsuccessful special
election that Schwarzenegger had engineered.

Since then Schwarzenegger’s standing with voters has
markedly improved, helped by his call to lawmakers to place a
massive public works debt measure on the November ballot and by
relatively smooth budget talks with the Democrat-led
legislature. That allowed Schwarzenegger last month to sign the
state’s first on-time spending plan in six years.

Schwarzenegger also is benefiting from improved job
performance ratings and a more positive mood of the state’s
direction — 49 percent of voters approve of his job
performance, up from a low of 36 percent last August. The poll
said 47 percent of voters now think the state is headed in the
right direction, up from 28 percent in April.

The Field Poll reflects results of a random survey of 992
Californians registered to vote, with 731 considered likely
voters, by telephone from June 10 to June 23. Results for all
questions, with exception of those on the governor’s job
performance and the direction of the state, have a sampling
error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points. Responses
regarding job performance and direction of the state have a
sampling error of 4.5 percentage points.