President Barack Obama continues to maintain positive ratings in California, with more than half of the Golden State’s registered voters approving of his performance — a number that’s been largely unchanged for the past year and a half, a new Field Poll shows.
The poll, released Tuesday, found that 57 percent of voters approve of the president’s performance, while 37 percent disapprove.
Although Obama’s approval rating in California has dipped slightly since April — when 59 percent had a favorable view — it has remained largely consistent since February 2015, when the president also received a 57 percent approval rating.
“The biggest factor that correlates with approval ratings of a president is how well overall the economy is doing,” said Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo, who attributed the favorable numbers to low unemployment and rising stock market indexes.
The president’s approval among Californians has seesawed in previous years — from a high of 62 percent in February 2013, shortly after he won re-election, to an all-time low of 45 percent in September 2014, when there was lingering pessimism about the economy.
While the numbers reflect an overall favorable opinion of Obama, the state’s Republicans and Democrats are sharply divided over his job performance. While 80 percent of California Democrats give the president a favorable rating, only 19 percent of Republicans do, the poll found.
“If you want to know what people in California think of Obama, all you need to ask is, ‘What’s their party registration?’ “ said DiCamillo.
Despite an environment of political gridlock in Washington, California Democrats largely remain loyal to Obama, said Bruce Cain, director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University.
“What’s interesting is that during this period he hasn’t lost a lot of approval from Democrats,” said Cain. “Even though there’s disappointment in the party about (a lack of action on gun control and the environment), it doesn’t seem to be directed toward Obama as a person.”
Opinions differ similarly along lines of race and age. Black and Latino California voters express much higher approval of Obama than white Californians do. And and 65 percent of voters 18 to 39 approve of the president’s job performance, nearly 20 percentage points higher than voters 65 or older.
DiCamillo also attributes Obama’s long streak of high approval ratings to the perception that he has given up on trying to compromise with the Republican-dominated Congress.
“Obama is now unencumbered by Congress. In his earlier years, he was trying to break bread with them and trying to put forward an agenda that they could live with, that would be bipartisan,” said DiCamillo. “That really never took hold, and what we’ve seen in the last 18 months is more of his own political philosophy dominating.”
And of Obama’s five immediate predecessors, only Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton enjoyed higher approval ratings during the summer of their final year in office, according to DiCamillo.
“What was common about Reagan, Clinton and now Obama?” said DiCamillo. “They all pretty much finished their terms in office with economy on an upbeat note.”
