By George Kelly : sfstandard – excerpt

Only a third of registered voters think California is moving in the right direction, while 57% think the state is off on the wrong track, according to a new poll by the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California Berkeley.

A statement released with the poll results last week described the findings as “a somewhat more negative assessment than voters have given in measures taken over the past eleven years” of consistent and regular mood assessments by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, the state’s oldest public policy research center. The poll was co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times.

Still, the pollsters added that the voters surveyed were not nearly as negative as they were during the nationwide economic crisis from 2008 to 2011, when 69% to 80% of state voters described California as headed in the wrong direction.

The latest poll found that voters are split on the question of whether Gov. Gavin Newsom is doing a good job leading the nation’s most populous state, with 46% approving of the governor’s performance and 47% disapproving. However, a third of voters said they strongly disapproved of Newsom’s performance, while just 17% said they strongly approved…(more)