Seeming Common Sense

The San Jose State poll released numbers yesterday which might surprise some people in the political class.

On the proposed term limits proposal - which would reduce the overall time that any politician can spend in the legislature but would allow a small group of legislators to extend their terms - the voters seem to support (based on the notion that it will shorten the time that legislators can spend in the job of being a politician even if they can spend it all in one house). The margin is not entirely comforting to the measure's supporters - 56% with a +/- of 3.9%. Generally a measure tends to lose support as things progress so the margin may be a bit close.

The people were read the following statement, which pretty accurately reflects the proposal - “Reduces the total amount of time a person may serve in the state legislature from 14 years to 12 years. Allows a person to serve a total of 12 years either in the Assembly, the Senate, or a combination of both. Provides a transition period to allow current members to serve a total of 12 consecutive years in the house in which they are currently serving, regardless of any prior
service in another house.”

On granting a path to legal status for people who came into the country illegally - support is running well above 50% - with, not surprisingly Democrats and Latinos more heavily supporting the idea. But surprisingly 45% of the GOP poll responders support the notion. In the end that is pretty good. Rates of support have varied from 50-63% over the last several polls. One might wish that the politicians who want to demagogue this on both sides would listen to the voters a bit more.