11:22 PM PST on Sunday, January 24, 2010

By JIM MILLER
Sacramento Bureau

Job-approval ratings for the governor and Legislature continue to hover near record lows as voters see no end in sight to the state’s economic woes, a new poll shows.

Only 27 percent of registered voters approve of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s job performance and nearly two-thirds disapprove, according to a Field Poll released today. Those numbers are virtually unchanged from October.

Almost 60 percent of voters, including more than half of the governor’s fellow Republicans, think that the termed-out Schwarzenegger will leave the state in worse shape than when he took office more than six years ago.

With elections approaching this fall, the Legislature comes in for even lower marks. Only 16 percent of voters approve of its job performance and 72 percent disapprove. That is a tiny improvement from October.

Within weeks of the October poll, lawmakers passed breakthrough water legislation and ended a decades-long impasse on the issue. Schwarzenegger and legislators called the agreement a major accomplishment.

But any expectation that the deal would boost the public’s perception of state lawmakers failed to bear out. The latest survey, conducted earlier this month, came as voters got the news that the state confronts another multibillion-dollar budget gap, requiring major cuts or tax increases.

“In these hard economic times, people really tend to downgrade their elected officials, especially with all the news coming out of Sacramento regarding the continuing budget deficit,” Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo said.

In mid-2004, two-thirds of voters approved of Schwarzenegger’s job performance, with only 22 percent disapproving. His approval ratings dipped in 2005 during a ballot battle over his special-election initiatives, rebounded in 2006 and 2007, but have been sliding ever since.

Schwarzenegger’s latest low marks cut across ideology, geography, age and racial background. Only about a quarter of Democrats and nonpartisan voters approve of his job performance, as do less than a third of Republican voters.

‘a right to be angry’

Friday, Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said “people have every right to be angry with their elected officials.

“Until we get the economy back on track and people back to work, they will stay angry and hold all of us accountable, as they should. That’s exactly why we’re fighting so hard to create jobs in California,” McLear said.

The state faces an estimated $20 billion budget gap through June. Schwarzenegger has called the Legislature into emergency session to act on $8.9 billion in immediate cuts. There have been no votes so far.

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