Feuer, Zine lead in poll that shows a discontented L.A.

The latest poll, which finds Dennis Zine ahead in the controller’s race and Mike Feuer leading for city attorney, also shows that half the voters don’t think Los Angeles is heading in the right direction. Such negativity could affect the most important factor in the election, turnout.

A poll of 674 likely voters by the Pat Brown Institute at Cal State University, Los Angeles, shows Councilman Zine leading Ron Galperin 33 percent to 18 percent and Feuer ahead of Carmen Trutanich, the incumbent, 35 percent to 24 percent.

What’s really interesting about the poll is its breakdown of voters’ attitudes. These will be crucial in the days before the May 21 election. With a turnout expected to be somewhere around 25 percent, above the primary but still low, the campaigns are targeting their appeals to various ethnic groups and geographical areas—and to specific voters. With today’s technology, campaigns know the voting history, consumer preferences, gender, viewing habits and much more about voters. In fact, they probably know what voters had for Mother’s Day brunch. Such information shapes campaigning by telephone, mail and visits to homes.

A total of 45 percent of whites say the city is headed in the wrong direction. Blacks are even more pessimistic. Latinos, on the other hand, said the city is going in the right direction by 44 percent to 23 percent. Latinos also gave Latino Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa a 62 percent favorable job approval rating, above that of other groups. The survey did not count enough members of other ethnic groups for them to be included in the survey.

Perhaps the positive feelings about L.A. among Latinos will help mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti, who was leading City Controller Wendy Greuel among Latinos, 48 percent to 36 percent in the mayoral portion of the survey released last week. He’s no doubt hoping that such good feelings add up to good turnout of Latino voters. Greuel and Garcetti were even in the mayoral survey.

Garcetti is also leading Greuel among voters making $40,000 a year or more. With voting increasing as income goes up, these working class, middle class and affluent voters probably are also on the Garcetti list of voters to target.

Also interesting were the voters’ take on the most important issues facing the city, which no doubt will shape the candidates’ political messages. Crime, 19 percent, ranked highest, followed by the city budget, 17 percent, education, 16 percent and traffic, 11 percent.