California gives the thumbs up to Arnold!

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is the most popular California Governor in almost 30 years!

In recent field polls, it showed that the Governor has the highest level of support at this stage in his term of any Californian governor in nearly 30 years, with even a handful of Democrats backing the performance of the former action hero.

The non-partisan Field Poll, released Tuesday, found Schwarzenegger with a 65% approval rating nine months after taking office, equal to his mark in May. The last governor to have that high a rating six to 10 months into office was Jerry Brown, who had a 67% approval rating in November 1975.

The rating represented a recovery of eight points from an interim poll during a budget confrontation with the California legislature.

Since the May poll numbers, Schwarzenegger ran into a rough patch after failing to meet the state's July 1 st deadline for the new fiscal year budget. He also angered Democratic lawmakers at one point by calling them "girlie men".

Schwarzenegger even has the backing of Democrats, who approve of the job he's doing by 45% to 35%, with 19% undecided. The governor has the support of 90% of Republicans and 61% of others.

"The number that is most significant to me in that whole array are the cross-party ones," DiCamillo said. "It's very unusual for the rank-and-file party members of the opposing party to give a favorable rating."

The poll was conducted after Schwarzenegger and the Legislature reached a deal nearly a month late on a $105 billion budget that avoided tax hikes and limited spending cuts. The deal put many of the more difficult decisions off until the future.

About half of respondents - 49% - said the governor did a very good or good job in terms of the budget, compared to just 13% who rated his performance as poor or very poor.

"His numbers are now equivalent to what they were before the whole budget process began," DiCamillo said. "Whatever problems he confronted during the budget process, voters are saying all is well that ends well. His standing with the public remains as strong as it was back in May."

The unpopular Legislature also got a boost, with its approval rating going from 27% in May to 33% in the latest poll. That's the highest approval rating for the Legislature since it had 35% backing in September 2002.

The poll, conducted from July 30 through Aug. 8, was based on interviews with 602 likely voters and had a sampling error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.

Global Arnold Staff