The Hoover Institution released a Golden State Poll on May 28. Question eight asks, “There has been a lot of talk about the California state legislature’s failure to address important problems facing California. Do you think that the ‘open primaries’ will lead to progress on important public policy issues in this state?”
The answers to this question were separated out by partisan affiliation. Voters who are neither Republicans nor Democrats responded this way: “Yes” 20%; “No” 49%; not sure 31%.
Among Republicans, the results were: “Yes” 26%; “No” 50%; not sure 23%.
Among Democrats, the results were: “Yes” 29%; “No” 35%; not sure 36%.
The poll also broke down the question for people who say they are interested in news most of the time, versus people who say only some of the time. The group that is interested in news most of the time results were: “Yes” 21%; “No” 51%; not sure 28%. But the people who are less interested in news responded: “Yes” 31%; “No” 36%; not sure 33%. Thanks to Thomas Jones and Jim Riley for the link.
The responses to “Do you think that the ‘open primaries’ will lead to progress on important public policy issues in this state?” were much more dependent on age than partisan affiliation.
Older persons were more realistic/cynical, younger persons were more optimistic/naive.