In the survey’s biggest headline, nearly six in 10 Californians oppose drilling for oil off their coast. That’s about a 15-point swing from last year, when a majority actually favored the drilling.
Baldassare: “It’s very, very rare. No examples like this are coming to mind where you see such an about-face.”
The PPIC’s Mark Baldassare suggests a clear reason for the change.
Baldassare: “This is a function of people hearing for many, many months about the problems with offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.”
Meantime, there isn’t much movement in this fall’s two highest-profile campaigns. Democrat Jerry Brown holds a three-point lead over Republican Meg Whitman in the governor’s race, 37 to 34 percent. And Democrat Barbara Boxer is five points ahead of Republican Carly Fiorina for the U-S Senate, 39 to 34 percent. In both races, around one in five voters say they haven’t made up their minds.