OPINION OF GOVERNOR IMPROVING ARNOLD'S APPROVAL RATING UP BY 21 POINTS.

Byline: HARRISON SHEPPARD Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO -- Just a year after California voters blasted them with dismal approval ratings, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state legislators have seen a dramatic reversal in public opinion, according to a new poll released today.

Buoyed by a year of legislative cooperation, the governor's approval rating shot up 21 points -- to 60 percent -- since last November and the Legislature's rating rose 16 points, to 36 percent, according to the survey by the Public Policy Institute of California.

Meanwhile, the number of Californians who think the state is heading in the right direction soared 30 points, to 53 percent.

``I think the overall message is that voters have very high expectations for the governor and the Legislature next year,'' said PPIC poll director Mark Baldassare. ``Opinions of both the governor and Legislature have bounced back significantly from the special election.''

At that time, frustrated voters viewed the governor and lawmakers as having accomplished very little and indicated they didn't want the special election in the first place.

The governor declared he had learned his lesson and set out to work collaboratively with Democratic lawmakers on a range of issues including infrastructure, raising the minimum wage and fighting global warming.

With state revenues increasing, Republican lawmakers also went along with the governor's budget, giving him the first on-time spending plan in six years.

Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Margita Thompson said the governor believes he can continue the bipartisanship in the coming year.

``Californians are optimistic because they saw what was accomplished last year and believe that the momentum can continue into the future,'' Thompson said.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, said he's glad the numbers are up, but that they're not high enough to suggest voters are happy.

Still, he thought Democratic cooperation with the governor was noticed by voters and that it will continue.

``I think (the better numbers are) directly attributable to the bipartisan course which we charted last year,'' Nunez said in a telephone interview while on a lobbying trip in Washington, D.C.

``I think that people want us to continue finding common ground, solving practical problems that have a direct impact on the lives of Californians. They want us to say no to the ideologues on both sides of the aisle and they want us to say yes to bipartisan cooperation.''

The poll interviewed 2,000 voters by telephone in the week after the election, in English and Spanish. The margin of error is 2 percentage points.

harrison.sheppard(at)dailynews.com

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Optimism grows

SOURCE: Public Policy Institute of California

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