Californians have hope for Gavin Newsom and lawmakers – while Biden drops in new survey
Californians tend to like the job Gov. Gavin Newsom is doing and see hope for what he and the state Legislature can accomplish this year.
Views of Biden and the nation’s direction are less buoyant, as residents increasingly worry about rising prices, the future of the pandemic and the direction of the country.
Those are the key findings of a survey released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California. It polled Californians between January 16 and 25.
“Worries about COVID have increased during the omicron surge,” said Mark Baldassare, PPIC president and chief executive officer. Infections have been dropping over the past few weeks, but deaths and hospitalizations remain up.
The Californians and their Government survey reported that while 67% of adults said the worst of the 22-month-long pandemic was behind us, that was down from 80% who felt that way last May.
Sixteen percent were very concerned last month they would get the virus and require hospitalization, while 26% were somewhat concerned.
Those numbers were also up from May, when 10% were very concerned and 18% were somewhat concerned.
Newsom and COVID
COVID-19 was most frequently mentioned as the major issue the Democratic governor and the state Legislature need to tackle this year. Nineteen percent labeled it that way, with homelessness and inflation next.
Yet the poll found plenty of optimism about how much Newsom and the Legislature could do, as 58% said they’ll be able to work together and accomplish a lot. Sixty-three percent favored the new Newsom budget proposal, and 73% liked his latest COVID-19 emergency response plan to cope with the omicron surge.
Fifty-nine percent gave both Newsom and Biden high marks for handling COVID-19. Approval tended to fall along party lines, with most Democrats cheering Newsom and Biden and most Republicans unhappy with their performance.
Biden and inflation
Biden’s approval rating, 70% when he took office a year ago, dropped significantly to 53%.
Consumer prices were up 7% last year, their steepest annual rise in nearly 40 years. Sixty-one percent of Californians said price increases have led to financial hardship, with 20% saying that hardship was severe.
And 38% said the country was going in the right direction, down from 52% last January.
People were somewhat more optimistic about California, with 56% approving of Newsom. Half of those surveyed said the state is going in the right direction.
This story was originally published February 2, 2022 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Californians have hope for Gavin Newsom and lawmakers – while Biden drops in new survey."
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