Gov. Jerry Brown’s approval rating reaches two-year high in new poll
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SACRAMENTO -- For the first time since Jerry Brown was elected to the governor’s office two years ago, a majority of California voters approve of the job he is doing as the state’s chief executive, according to a new Field Poll.
The survey, released Thursday, found that 57% of respondents, drawn from registered voters, said they approve of Brown’s performance, an 11-point jump since the last Field Poll in October.
The increase comes in the wake of the governor’s successful campaign to pass Proposition 30, the temporary tax-hike plan to help balance the state’s books and prevent billions of dollars in cuts to public schools and universities.
Since Brown’s election in 2010, his approval rating had hovered between 43% and 49%. In the latest survey, large majorities of Democratic and independent respondents said they viewed the governor positively. Sixty-five percent of Republican respondents said they disapproved of Brown’s performance.
The poll also found that a majority of respondents said they thought that Democratic supermajorities in the Legislature are a good thing for the state.
The survey found that 55% of respondents support Democratic control of the Assembly and Senate, compared with 39% who said the party’s power to pass certain measures without Republican votes is a bad thing.
Californians’ harsh view of the Legislature is also improving, according to the survey.
While half of respondents said they disapprove of the job lawmakers are doing, more than a third (36%) said they approve of the Legislature’s performance. That’s an 11-point increase in lawmakers’ approval rating from September.
According to the poll, over the past five years, no more than one in four voters has approved of the Legislature’s performance.
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