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Schwarzenegger with 8-point lead over challenger

Posted on: Tuesday, 25 July 2006, 13:29 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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