New California Poll Shows 3 Democrats In Dead Heat In Presidential Primary

Speaker 1: 00:00 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is in San Diego tonight holding a town hall event and a brand new California poll has some pretty good news for her. She's at the top of what is basically a three way tie of Warren, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. The bad news is for the rest of the candidates, including California Senator Kamala Harris, who are stuck in single digits journey me by Skype is Mark Baldisari, president and CEO of the public policy Institute of California. Mark, welcome to the program. Speaker 2: 00:33 Thank you. It's good to be part of the program. Speaker 1: 00:36 Now tell us more about this three way tie among the top tier candidates. Speaker 2: 00:41 So, um, in our latest poll, we found Elizabeth Warren with 23% Joe Biden with 22%. And Bernie Sanders with 21%. When we ask people, um, who they would prefer as the, um, the, in the democratic primary in California. And, uh, so they're in there in a virtual tie. There's no other candidate, um, that receives more than 10%. In our poll. Uh, Senator Harris, for instance, uh, receives a 8%. The other Californian, uh, Tom Stier getting 1%. Um, so clearly, um, uh, Senator Warren, um, is, uh, has moved up since our last poll. And, uh, Senator Harris, um, has lost support. Speaker 1: 01:29 Was this poll taken before a Bernie Sanders health scare? Okay. Speaker 2: 01:33 Yes. Uh, this pole, uh, was taken basically right after the democratic, um, uh, the last democratic primary debate, which by the way, when we ask people how important the debates are, a four foreign 10, um, likely voters said that, that the debates are very important in eight out of 10 said that, uh, that the debates are at least somewhat important in helping them decide who to support. And the, so we have to assume that this is a, this, this is a strong factor in, uh, the changes we've seen between our July survey and our September survey, which are favored, um, uh, Senator Warren, um, and, um, uh, show a loss of support for Senator Harris. Speaker 1: 02:21 Now, was it only Democrats who were surveyed about the presidential candidates? Speaker 2: 02:25 We, uh, talk to, uh, people who are Democrats or independents who tell us that they lean democratic because, um, anybody who's a registered, no party preference, a voter in California can also participate. Um, so most of the people we talk to are Democrats, but some were, um, were, were independence. So, uh, so both groups were represented. The margin of error is plus or minus 5%. In our poll, Speaker 1: 02:54 you also opened up the poll to all Californians for other questions. And some of those numbers might explain why Senator Harris isn't doing better in the presidential race. She's not getting high marks for her work in the Senate issue. Speaker 2: 03:08 No. Um, you know, in general are elected, uh, officials are statewide elected officials are not, uh, getting high marks right now because many California and say the state's going in the wrong direction or they're concerned about the economy. But, uh, but in our poll, when we asked about the approval rating of Senator Harris for the job that she's doing as us Senator, um, 43% of likely voters said that they approved to the job she was doing in 46%. Said that they disapproved. Speaker 1: 03:39 And you tried to gauge support for president Trump amongst Californians. What did you find out? Speaker 2: 03:44 Well, uh, president Trump's approval rating has been really remarkably stable and um, and, and uh, not, not positive over time. Um, in our latest poll, 35% said that they approve of, uh, the job he's doing as president. 62% said that they disapprove that's virtually unchanged from the approval rating that, um, that the president had in January. Um, and when he entered office. And I think it's, you know, consistent with the national polls that um, his approval rating doesn't seem to move with whatever news there is. Um, most, uh, Democrats overwhelmingly disapprove of the job, the president's doing most independence. Um, and about eight and 10 Republicans say that they, that they approve of what he's doing. Speaker 1: 04:37 Now you mentioned that, uh, the poll found out that people in California, the majority think that California is moving in the wrong direction and they're concerned about the economy. What are the other top concerns of Californians? We found when we asked people just straight out and open ended question, which we've been doing for 20 years, here's Speaker 2: 04:56 what's the most important issue facing people in California today? Homelessness, the economy. Um, housing costs and immigration were the top four issues. So first time, uh, ever in our polling that, uh, that homelessness, um, has been mentioned as a one of the top issues. Uh, so that was a new and surprising for us. Um, and I think what this list has in common, um, is it's a reflection of the concerns and the fears that people have about, um, uh, about life in California right now. Many people are concerned about the, the, the, the, the number of homeless people that they're seeing on the street and what that means about the society. Um, the, the level of poverty, the level of inequality in our society. And, um, almost everybody in one way or another is, is impacted by the cost of housing. Um, and many people in our poll also said that they're concerned about the, um, increased federal immigration enforcement and what this means for the possibilities that somebody they know might, might be deported. Actually, four and 10 people in our poll said that. So lots of fears and concerns and in a general sense that a government is not, I'm not doing all it can to make a, this a better place. I've been speaking with Mark Baldassarre, president and CEO of the public policy Institute of California, and we're been talking about the PPI CS latest California polling. Thank you, Mark, so much for your time. Thank you very much. Speaker 3: 06:37 [inaudible].