San Diego County voters are more enthusiastic about raising their local sales tax than enacting a slew of changes to county government that would let elected supervisors run for a third term, a new San Diego Union-Tribune poll finds.
With ballots landing in mailboxes starting next week, registered voters overwhelmingly back many elements of Measure A, a package of proposed changes to the county’s charter — but they overwhelmingly oppose letting supervisors run for a third term.
Meanwhile, they’re souring even further on Donald Trump’s presidency, heading into a midterm election in which they could also help determine control of Congress.
Those are among the findings of a poll for the Union-Tribune released Thursday. Conducted by SurveyUSA from Sept. 24-28, it has a credibility interval of about 5 percentage points.
The stronger support for the sales-tax measure mirrors outsized campaign spending in support of the tax hike, compared with barely any spending on the charter package.
The labor unions, nonprofits and other supporters pushing the tax hike have spent more than $2.5 million so far this election cycle — while a committee backing Measure A spent $2,352, disclosures filed last week show.
In addition to extending supervisor term limits, the county charter package — the brainchild of county Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer — would also create a new county ethics commission, auditor and budget analyst and require that elected supervisors confirm top county staff hires.
More than two-thirds of registered voters polled say they support the creation of each of those three offices. Nearly as many say they support having supervisors confirm top hires.
But more than three-quarters of respondents say they want to keep term limits for supervisors set at the current two terms, a limit adopted by voters with a 2010 ballot measure.
On the entire package, likely San Diego County voters appear split, with the margin of support falling within the poll’s credibility interval: 40% say they would vote yes if the election were held today, 35% would vote no and a quarter are undecided.
Likely voters are more supportive of an effort to raise the countywide sales tax rate — but that measure too is falling just short of the support it would need to pass.
Nearly half of respondents say they would vote yes on Measure B, a half-cent sales tax hike that would fund wildfire prevention, social services and a Tijuana River Valley sewage cleanup.
That measure leads over “no” votes by a double-digit margin, 49% to 35%, but another 17% of voters remain undecided.
Still, voters are paying close attention, they told pollsters — 84% of respondents say they would certainly or probably cast their ballot this fall.
But they haven’t decided whom to vote for for county treasurer-tax collector. Most voters say they’re unfamiliar with the countywide race, and 70% of them are undecided between candidates Larry Cohen and Shirley Nakawatase.
They’re also not sure about the direction San Diego County government writ large is heading. Forty-three percent say it’s heading in the wrong direction and 32% in the right direction, while more than a quarter aren’t sure.
Opinions on national matters are far clearer — especially when it comes to Congress, the Iran war and Trump.
With 63% of respondents saying they disapprove of the job Trump is doing, that leaves his approval rating 34 percentage points underwater — far deeper than six months ago, when a Union-Tribune poll found a 21-point spread.
Voters’ assessments of Congress are similarly dire (21% approve, 62% disapprove), and opinions of the war in Iran are even worse (19% approve, 65% disapprove).