Bill Bradley, looking at a poll just released by the Public Policy Institute of California, observes on his blog this morning that the infrastructure measures are in trouble. The governor and many major state lawmakers and advocacy groups have gone up and down the state promoting and stumping for the measures. But none of the measures has increased its support in any significant way.

Support for Proposition 1B is stuck at 51-38%. Proposition 1C is at 56-34%, Proposition 1D is at 51-39%, and Proposition 1E is at 53-36%. Proposition 84, the water safety initiative, is well below the margin needed for passage, with 42% supporting it and 43% opposing it. As Bradley points out, even worse news for the measure’s supporters is that support for the measures among Democrats and independent voters, who are traditional supporters of bond expenditures, is far short of what it should be.

The PPIC polling data seem to suggest that voters are supportive of the concept of bond expenditures in general, but wary of the specific measures that appear on this year’s ballot. 58% of likely voters say that the $43 billion total that the bond measures, if implemented, would require is too costly. Focusing specifically on Proposition 1D, 87% of likely voters consider state spending on improvements in school facilities to be important for their individual communities, but support for that measure is essentially unchanged from last month.

A George Skelton piece in today’s Los Angeles Times notes that despite Schwarzenegger’s popularity, and despite several carefully orchestrated appearances at charter schools and Delta levees, he hasn’t been able to drum up much support for the infrastructure measures. Skelton surmises that if the bonds flop at the polls, it could take some of the luster off the projected Schwarzenegger re-election landslide.

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