California’s Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom’s approval rating has reportedly dropped 14 points over the last four months amid growing recall petitions, a new poll found.
The University of California, Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies survey found that 46% approve of Newsom’s job performance — down from 60% four months ago — the highest of any of the state’s governors in the last five decades, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The drop tracked with growing public dissatisfaction with Newsom’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. The share of voters who said he is doing an excellent or good job dropped from roughly half in September to about a third, while those who faulted him for doing a poor job jumped from 28% to 43%.
The poll found 36% of voters said they’d vote to oust Newsom if a recall measure makes it on the ballot; 45% said they would not.
The online poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
“People are reevaluating how well Newsom is doing handling the pandemic,” Mark DiCamillo, director of the poll, told the Times.
“Once your job performance rating starts to decline, it’s more difficult to put it back in the right direction. You kind of accumulate negatives over time,” he added.
In an interview with Politico, DiCamillo said the trend lines for Newsom “aren’t great,” but noted that Newsom is in a far stronger position than former Gov. Gray Davis was when he faced a recall in 2003, and large blocs of undecided voters offer Newsom a path to safety.
“I would say that a lot depends on the events of the next three or four months. What’s unusual about the measure on his recall is the relatively large proportions of voters still undecided,” DiCamillo said. “I think that the job rating hit is serious, but if things start to improve on the pandemic front I think the recall will be less of a problem for him.”
In order for a recall vote to take place, petitioners would have to get 1.5 million signatures by March 17. At least 1.3 million people have joined the movement, Newsweek reported.
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