Mark DiCamillo Quotes (57 Quotes)

For Schwarzenegger himself, his ability to reach across the aisle has been taken away from him.

What we are seeing this year is that he's pretty much worn out his welcome, especially with Democrats and with nonpartisans, ... It almost has a counterproductive impact in this year's campaign.

He's just not the right spokesman when it comes to communicating with Democrats and independents right now. That's contrasted with a year ago when he was considered a very credible spokesman and had very high approval ratings.

This is a group that supports very basic government services like education and health care, and they see him as someone who was talking about cutting them back.

The governor's image is a negative drag and it is directly related to how people are going to vote on these propositions.

What will be more influential on the outcome of (this year's) election is the shape of the turnout Who will (vote)

People have pretty much adjusted to the risk factor of earthquakes and go about their daily lives.

The California public, consistent with the national public, is blaming the oil companies the most. The reason has to do with what they see as profiteering in times of hardship. When prices run up, the oil companies make more money. They're already having record profits. The public doesn't like that situation. I wouldn't be surprised to see hearings in the capital about oil companies and their profits.

These Democrats are not well-known to large segments of the California electorate, so we'll have to wait and see how they stack up,

If he granted clemency, I would say, it would be a very divisive opinion. Large segments of the public would take him to task.

It's a tug of war between two different factions. This seems to indicate that the pro-choice side has gained an advantage.

As the special election has dragged on, one of the side effects have been greater voter cynicism about the reasons the governor called the election, ... The governor has never been able to sell them on the idea and have questioned his motives.

There's not a lot of knowledge about the two initiatives. History shows that voter confusion ... can lead to changes in their preferences.

Different groups of people view this issue very differently. Voters tend to be older, whiter and middle class, while unregistered voters tend to be young and immigrant.

The president, in our perspective, is in uncharted territory because he has a really long tenure left and yet he has very low job performance ratings in just his sixth year. Whether he is able to turn it around depends a lot on Iraq. But the events in Iraq seem largely out of his or U.S. control.

I would suspect his tone would change significantly if they don't make it onto the November ballot. If that happened, I could see calling the Legislature all sorts of names by the end of the campaign.

We're looking at things that are new and different, issues that weren't here 10 or 15 years ago. They are transforming California.

That result looks very much like a partisan vote, with any Democrat grabbing that margin among Latinos. That's an obstacle California Republicans didn't have to face 10 or 15 years ago.

We've seen this before. It's like murder-suicide both of them get voted down.

at this stage are still inclined to vote for it.

What you see is kind of a balanced assessment. There are some policy positions where some voters are fairly lenient to illegal immigrants and on others they're supportive of tougher approaches.

People feel very strongly about this initiative. I don't anticipate a lot of movement. It may come down to who turns out on Election Day.

The voters are stepping back and want more information about the two Democrats. They don't seem to have much of an impression.

This issue wipes out all the divisions in the state. It's an issue whose time has come. Voters are behind it.

The story is not a good one for the governor, ... There seems to be a common thread across all the proposition - if Arnold Schwarzenegger has endorsed it, Democrats and nonpartisans are reacting negatively and by turning off those two groups, it has made things very difficult for the governor.

These elected officials just can't believe their recognition levels are so low. But this state is so big that to be known to a majority is a real accomplishment.

The level of concern has declined, especially compared to a decade ago. And the concern about the loss of jobs, we are definitely correlating to the unemployment rate.

The last time we were this anxious about the future it preceded a few years of recession. The warning flag is out. . . . A couple years of this would lead to some economic consequences that would be easy to spot in the economy.

I would say that (the death penalty) is sort of like other hot button issues in California like abortion.

She's a very divisive figure. In my opinion, most people either like her or hate her.

When we tell voters Proposition 78 is supported by the pharmaceutical companies, it weakens support even from the people who are backing it,

His recent statements and policy positions make it look like he's trying to cut into the Democrats' advantage among coastal voters. However, others are trying to get him to backtrack to shore up support among his Republican base. How he ends up resolving this will probably be the major strategic decision facing his re-election campaign.

There is clear confusion on Prop. 78 as to who is backing it, which means it's the one with the greatest potential for change in preference.

In late 1993, (Wilson) was at 31 percent, which is even lower than the governor's numbers today, ... He went on to win by 10 points in 1994. There was a lot of grumbling about Pete Wilson, but he was able to distinguish himself from (Democratic candidate) Kathleen Brown, latched onto illegal immigration as an issue and it propelled him to victory. The quality of the campaign, the way candidates raise the salience of issues - all those things matter.

It's a two-step process. First, people want to know who you are, why you're running, the whole nine yards. Then there's the second stage, where they ask the tougher policy questions about what you believe and what you'd do.

What's driving that attitude change is that more and more Californians say they personally know someone who is gay or lesbian. Personal knowledge and familiarity seem to provide greater accommodation in the public at large.

The question always presents itself How formidable are the challengers Early measures show them leading by very narrow margins, and the preferences are party based. It's way too early to say whether the challengers will be formidable.

The barrage of negative ads seems to be influencing voters and helping to defeat Proposition 79,

That's one option voters and non-voters embrace. It puts undocumented immigrants into some kind of accounting system.

Some folks think a real large proportion of players were using them, and there's widespread belief that Bonds was one of them.

When politicians try to move from negative to positive, it really is a two-step process. People don't go straight from negative to positive. They go from negative to undecided, and then maybe to positive.

The overall trend for Arnold Schwarzenegger is favorable, but there are a lot of people still in play.

It wasn't meant to be a partisan reform initiative, but it is clearly perceived that way and I think that has to do with the governor.

they haven't made any real moves toward organizing a campaign.

They were just about to be voted out of office, or in the case of Richard Nixon, he was about to resign. Bush still has more than two years to go, so I think we're in somewhat uncharted territory.

(Brown) still remains among the top tier of personalities in California in terms of name recognition. Eighty percent could offer an opinion one way or the other, even though he has been Oakland mayor and off the statewide scene for many years.

As time passes, there is a greater acceptance of gay and lesbian rights and greater support of anti-discrimination policies. That's the key finding.

So many seats in California are safe, and that's true nationally, too. So the opportunities for the out-of-power party to gain (seats in Congress) is really not that great. Most observers would say that only a few seats could change hands.

There's a clear consensus that we should give (undocumented workers) a path to citizenship. There's bipartisan support.

Generally speaking, Californians tend to be more open to allowing an individual to make a decision rather than having something prohibited through government fiat.