Poll: Californians have little love for Trump, want state to go its own way

LOCAL
11 February 2017 Saturday 05:58

In California’s first statewide poll on Donald Trump’s performance as president since he was sworn in Jan. 20, the Public Policy Institute of California found that just 30 percent of the state’s residents approved of the job he was doing and that a solid majority believe the state should keep charting its own course on immigration and climate change.

And in a striking finding that could boost an anti-deportation proposal by Democrats in Sacramento, nearly two-thirds agreed that the state and local governments should take action — “separate from the federal government” — to protect the rights of undocumented immigrants.

“I don’t think the wall or punitive policies is the way to go forward in the world,” said Lori Buschbaum, a 48-year-old theater operations manager from Berkeley — one of the 1,702 California adults interviewed by phone between Jan. 22 and 31. “As a white person, I’m not native to this land either, and who am I to say who can and can’t be here?”

The survey underscores a sharp contrast between the views of average Californians and the policy direction being set by their new president, who has vowed to build a wall between the United States and Mexico, to more aggressively enforce immigration laws and to cut funding from “sanctuary cities” such as Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose, which have adopted policies to protect people from deportation.

Fifty-eight percent of those Californians surveyed disapproved of Trump’s performance, and 12 percent said they didn’t know whether they approved.

The 30 percent support for Trump among Californians is substantially lower than his national approval rating of 45 percent from a Gallup poll taken around the same time. The new survey has a maximum margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

While more than two-thirds of Republicans surveyed said they do not want California to go its own way on immigration, 65 percent — and a surprising 61 percent of Trump voters — said they thought undocumented immigrants ought to be able to remain in the state legally if they meet “certain requirements,” a view consistent with previous polls. Overall, 85 percent held such a view.

Like many Californians, Stephen Hjeltness, a 59-year-old shipping and receiving supervisor from San Jose, said he doesn’t want to see otherwise law-abiding people who have built a life in the United States rounded up, despite his concerns about illegal immigration.

“If they’re not a violent felon, then they can stay,” he said.

Knowing that Californians voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton by 2-to-1, Democratic lawmakers are pushing back on Trump’s agenda with a state bill that would prohibit police from collecting information about immigration status and relaying it to federal authorities, a proposal that prompted Trump in a Sunday interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly to call California “out of control.”

In line with prevailing state sentiments in support of abortion rights, the Affordable Care Act and the need for tough climate-change legislation — views also reflected in the latest survey — Gov. Jerry Brown and other state Democrats have spoken forcefully against Congress’ threat to defund Planned Parenthood, have staunchly supported Obamacare and have advanced policies to slow global warming.

Nearly two-thirds of Californians surveyed said they saw climate change as a “major threat,” and 63 percent favored the state making its own policies to combat it.

“I think what’s wrapped up in all of this,” said Mark Baldassare, the PPIC’s president and CEO, “is some hopes and expectations that Californians have that while things aren’t going in the right direction in the country, they’re going in the right direction here.”

Indeed, the poll shows Brown and state lawmakers riding a wave of popularity in California. Those surveyed gave higher marks to the state Legislature — 57 percent approved of the body — than they have in any PPIC survey since 2001, Baldassare said, before the infamous energy crisis crushed public trust in state government.

Californians gave Brown his highest approval rating yet in a PPIC survey: 62 percent. And 58 percent of those surveyed think the state is generally headed in a good direction.

Defying federal policy carries a risk because Trump could use what authority he has to withhold federal dollars from California, as he has already threatened to do, said Louis DeSipio, who directs UC Irvine’s Center for the Study of Democracy.

“I suspect that when there start to be real consequences for California going out on its own,” DeSipio said, “you’ll see the support narrow.”

SURVEY OF CALIFORNIANS

Other findings of a statewide poll released Wednesday night.

OPPOSE THE APPEAL OF AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

Overall: 53 percent

Democrats: 78 percent

Republicans: 17 percent

Independents: 57 percent

THINK GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT INTERFERE WITH A WOMAN’S ACCESS TO ABORTION

Overall: 71 percent

Democrats: 87 percent

Republicans: 60 percent