Field Poll Research Articles

The effect of pollution by gravel cruches dust in the city of sebha,libya on the germination and growth of beans of phaseolus vulgaris and vigna unguiculata plants

Pollution has heavy impact on countries ' economies, through its impact on crop production. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of pollution by breakers gravel dust (city of Sebha-Libya) on germination and growth of seedlings of beans Phaseolus vulgaris and Cowpea Vigna unguiculata. Where the field poll found that the number of crushers in the city reached 12 crusher scattered randomly around the city, there are relatively found at high sites when compared to agricultural land in the area, causing environmental problems on agricultural ecosystems of dust from these quarries. Accumulated dust was collected from the nearest crusher to the agricultural area south of the city, and various concentrations was prepared in the laboratory from this dust ( 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 grams/liter), and its impact was assessed on seed germination and seedling growth in an experiment conducted in Petri dishes in laboratories of Faculty of science, University of Sebha. And it turns out that crushers dust has a significant negative impact on seed germination and growth of seedlings of both plant under study .

Immigration Politics and Partisan Realignment: California, Texas, and the 1994 Election

AbstractThis article demonstrates how the party identification of various demographic groups in California and Texas changed in response to the gubernatorial campaigns of Pete Wilson and George W. Bush. Using aggregated time series of Field Poll, Texas Poll, and Gallup data, difference-in-differences results show that Wilson's embrace of Proposition 187 was followed by significant Hispanic movement toward the Democratic Party in California. Time series analysis substantiates that this action led to a long-term 7.1 percentage point Democratic shift among California's Hispanics. This suggests that state-level actors can influence partisan coalitions in their state, beyond what would be expected from national-level factors.

A Study on Public Opinion of Structural Concrete Blocks Incorporated with Ornamental Stone Residue

The municipal area of Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, state of Espirito Santo, Brazil, is a major producer of ornamental stones. The sawing process of these stones generates a considerable amount of residues, which is disposed in open air piles, contributing to pollution and landscape degradation. A current solution being investigated for these residues is their incorporation into civil construction products such as clayey ceramics, lining mortars and concrete blocks. However, this incorporation is still subjected to doubt not only by the producers in the industry but also the intermediate seller as well as the final consumer. In order to verify the degree of personal acceptance of concrete structural blocks incorporated with ornamental stone residue, a field poll was conducted by means of questionnaires for inquiring the three directly related segments. The results showed distinct degrees of acceptance, especially by the sellers who fear rejection by the consumer. The acceptance of the residue incorporated block was, in some cases, positive as long as supported by a research work conducted in R&D centers and Universities.

Voting for stem cells: How local conditions tempered moral opposition to Proposition 71

A major theme in the debate on Proposition 71, the 2004 California ballot initiative in which voters approved US$3 billion in state funding for stem cell research, was the tension between values-based opposition to the use of embryos in medical research and a focus on the potential health benefits of stem cell therapies. Using a dataset that combines individual-level voting intention data from three Field Poll pre-election surveys and county-level data, the present study finds that moral opposition to Proposition 71 decreased as the local prevalence of chronic diseases and the proportion of elderly residents in respondents’ counties increased. The paper argues that this finding reflects an increase in the salience of the possible benefits of stem cell research that was driven by local conditions, and concludes with a discussion of the implications of this dynamic for the democratic governance of regenerative medicine in the context of an aging society.

The Growing Political Might of Ethnic Voters in California and its Political Ramifications

DOI 10.1515/cjpp-2013-0017 Calif. J. Politics Policy 2014; 6(3): 425–436 Mark J. DiCamillo* The Growing Political Might of Ethnic Voters in California and its Political Ramifications Abstract: The rapid growth of the state’s Latino and Asian American voting popu- lations, coupled with their increasing preference for Democratic candidates, have transformed electoral politics in California over the past 20 years. It is no coinci- dence that since voter registration among the state’s Latinos and Asian Americans began their ascent in the mid-1990s California has changed from a very competi- tive “purple state” in presidential elections to one of the nation’s bluest of blue states. According to Field Poll estimates, more than 90% of the net 3.3 million increase in the state’s registered voters since 1994 has come from the ranks of Latinos and Asian-Americans. This paper traces the growth of Latinos and Asian Americans within the state’s electorate over the past 20 years and examines their growing preference for Democratic candidates in presidential elections during this period. It also compares the opinions of ethnic voters to White non-Hispanic voters on a number of prominent political and social issues through the ongoing statewide survey measurements of the non-partisan Field Poll. The results shed light on the reasons why ethnic voters are increasingly aligning themselves with the Democratic Party. And, because these demographic changes are expected to continue into the foreseeable future, bodes ill for the long-term electoral fortunes of the California Republican Party. Keywords: African-American vote; Asian-American vote; California politics; ethnic voters; Latino vote. *Corresponding author: Mark J. DiCamillo, Senior Vice President, Field Research Corporation, and Director of The Field Poll, e-mail: markd@field.com The election results in 2012 further strengthened California’s national reputation as a Democratic stronghold. President Barack Obama carried the state by 23 percent- age points, Dianne Feinstein was overwhelmingly re-elected to the US Senate, and Democrats secured two-thirds majority control of both houses of the state legisla- ture, and won most of the congressional races targeted by the GOP. Voters approved also Proposition 30, a statewide tax increase initiative championed by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown and his allies as a means to balance the state budget. The 2012 election outcomes were not unexpected. Obama carried California by a similar margin in 2008 and Democratic candidates have carried California

The Growing Political Might of Ethnic Voters in California and its Political Ramifications

DOI 10.1515/cjpp-2013-0017 Calif. J. Politics Policy 2014; 6(3): 425–436 Mark J. DiCamillo* The Growing Political Might of Ethnic Voters in California and its Political Ramifications Abstract: The rapid growth of the state’s Latino and Asian American voting popu- lations, coupled with their increasing preference for Democratic candidates, have transformed electoral politics in California over the past 20 years. It is no coinci- dence that since voter registration among the state’s Latinos and Asian Americans began their ascent in the mid-1990s California has changed from a very competi- tive “purple state” in presidential elections to one of the nation’s bluest of blue states. According to Field Poll estimates, more than 90% of the net 3.3 million increase in the state’s registered voters since 1994 has come from the ranks of Latinos and Asian-Americans. This paper traces the growth of Latinos and Asian Americans within the state’s electorate over the past 20 years and examines their growing preference for Democratic candidates in presidential elections during this period. It also compares the opinions of ethnic voters to White non-Hispanic voters on a number of prominent political and social issues through the ongoing statewide survey measurements of the non-partisan Field Poll. The results shed light on the reasons why ethnic voters are increasingly aligning themselves with the Democratic Party. And, because these demographic changes are expected to continue into the foreseeable future, bodes ill for the long-term electoral fortunes of the California Republican Party. Keywords: African-American vote; Asian-American vote; California politics; ethnic voters; Latino vote. *Corresponding author: Mark J. DiCamillo, Senior Vice President, Field Research Corporation, and Director of The Field Poll, e-mail: markd@field.com The election results in 2012 further strengthened California’s national reputation as a Democratic stronghold. President Barack Obama carried the state by 23 percent- age points, Dianne Feinstein was overwhelmingly re-elected to the US Senate, and Democrats secured two-thirds majority control of both houses of the state legisla- ture, and won most of the congressional races targeted by the GOP. Voters approved also Proposition 30, a statewide tax increase initiative championed by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown and his allies as a means to balance the state budget. The 2012 election outcomes were not unexpected. Obama carried California by a similar margin in 2008 and Democratic candidates have carried California

Administering Democracy: Public Opinion on Election Reform in California

THE CALIFORNIA Journal of Politics & Policy Volume 4, Issue 1 Administering Democracy: Public Opinion on Election Reform in California Elizabeth Bergman California State University East Bay Abstract During the 2008 presidential election in California 5,722,465 voters voted by mail, representing 41.64% of all registered voters in the state. Given the historic number of mail ballots and the increasing propensity for voters in California and elsewhere to choose this voting method, some basic questions are asked: Do voters favor ex- panding mail balloting? How will registrants who chose to vote at a polling place react when they are required to vote by mail? Does voting method affect voter’s confidence in the election system? Is there a difference in confidence levels among those required to vote by mail vs. self-selected absentee voters? Who do voters turn to for information regarding the election process, i.e., about how to cast their ballot? California offers researchers a unique quasi-experimental setting to answer these questions because of a discontinuity in the state Election Code that forces some registrants to vote by mail while other similar registrants are allowed to vote at a polling place. Data from two surveys are used: a statewide survey of both poll- ing place and mail voters conducted by the Field Poll, and a five-county survey of only mail voters conducted by the Survey Policy Research Institute. Keywords: voting, elections, election reform, vote-by-mail Copyright © 2012 De Gruyter. All rights reserved. http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/cjpp

The Paradox of Prop. 13: The Informed Public's Misunderstanding of California's Third Rail

Political science research has long established a list of factors associated with higher levels of political knowledge. Among these are education, income, political attentiveness, voter participation, and age. This analysis, using questions from a 2005 and a 2009 California Field Poll, shows that all of those predictors are associated with not only a lack of accurate understanding, but actual misinformation when it comes to basic comprehension of California’s Proposition 13. This is a unique finding, in that misinformation is concentrated among those who ought to be most politically aware. Several possible explanations for this bizarre phenomenon are explored. This is especially interesting, since the misunderstanding persists 31 years after the passage of the landmark tax measure.

A Response to Paul Gronke's blog, "Measuring Turnout Effects of Vote by Mail in California"

THE CALIFORNIA Journal of Politics & Policy Commentary A Response to Paul Gronke’s blog, “Measuring Turnout Effects of Vote by Mail in California” Mark DiCamillo* The Field Poll I read Professor Paul Gronke’s critique of a recent article of mine, “The Continuing Growth of Mail Ballot Voting in California in 2008,” published in the California Journal for Politics & Policy (Volume 1, Issue 1) and feel compelled to respond. Gronke’s critique was posted on the Election Updates blog, of which he is a collaborator . In his critique Gronke asserts there are two problems with the analysis presented in my article. The first relates www.bepress.com/cjpp Volume 1, Issue 1, 2009 to the relationship between the recent acceleration in the rate of mail ballot voting in California and the recent rebound in voter turnout in California between the 2000 and 2008 presidential elections. The second has to do with the significance of the higher turnout rate of voters who were sent mail ballots in the 2008 presidential election compared to those who were not. It is curious that Gronke’s critique fails to discuss the central thesis of the paper; i.e., that the introduction of permanent mail ballot registration in 2001 and its rapid growth has been a primary driver of the accelerated use of mail ballot voting in California over the past eight years. Let me respond to Gronke by first taking issue with his assertion that there is no significance to the fact that California registered voters who were sent a mail ballot in the 2008 presidential election voted at a significantly higher rate than other registrants not receiving a mail ballot. In that election about 5.7 million of the approximately 6.7 * Mark DiCamillo is director of The Field Poll.

The Continuing Growth of Mail Ballot Voting in California in 2008

THE CALIFORNIA Journal of Politics & Policy Volume 1, Issue 1 The Continuing Growth of Mail Ballot Voting in California in 2008 Mark DiCamillo The Field Poll Abstract This paper summarizes trends in mail ballot voting and permanent mail ballot reg- istrants in California. It also examines the demographic characteristics of mail bal- lot voters and permanent mail ballot registrants in 2008. KEYWORDS: voter turnout, early voting, voting by mail www.bepress.com/cjpp

Can We Frame the Terrorist Threat? Issue Frames, the Perception of Threat, and Opinions on Counterterrorism Policies

In political disputes, issue frames set parameters for debate and shape which view dominates. This study expands issue framing research to examine the influence of frames on the perception of future terrorist threats as well as subsequent support for related counterterrorism policies. We test several hypotheses using data from an experimental field poll. We find that issue frames clearly influence perceptions of threat. However, our frames, which posit specific terrorism threats, only have a limited influence on respondent preferences for counter-terrorism policies. We consider a variety of explanations for these results and provide direction for future research.

Changing Minds: Policy and Political Implications of Changing One's Mind on Gay Rights

As part of the Field Poll administered during February 2006, we included a number of questions addressing attitudes towards homosexuality and various gay rights policy issues. We also asked questions related to two of the key elements which form the basis of the strategy promoted by gay rights activists – questions concerning whether or not a respondent knew any gay people (and, if so, on what basis did they know them) and whether or not the respondent had changed his or her mind on homosexuality since becoming an adult. There are an increasing number of studies that have looked at the impact of “knowing someone gay” on attitudes. The focus of this paper, however, is on the questions concerning whether or not a person had changed his/her mind about homosexuality.

Macropartisanship in California

Political scientists have devoted considerable, well-justified attention to changes in macropartisanship at the national level but have generally ignored movement in aggregate party identification at the American state level. The case of California is especially interesting for a number of reasons, most notably because of the potential impact of rapid ethnic change on aggregate political attitudes. In this article we assess macropartisanship in the Golden State from 1980 through 2001, drawing on Field Polls of California adults. We find that essentially there have been two eras in recent state history: a period of increasing Republican identification up to 1991 and an era of increasing Demo? cratic identification thereafter. Some of this apparent movement to the Democrats among Californians as a whole is attributable to the increas? ing Latino share of the Field Poll samples and the decision to offer the survey in Spanish. However, there has also been movement toward the Democratic Party within ethnic and racial subgroups. This movement can be found to some degree in all major groups (except for African Americans, who were already overwhelmingly identified with the Dem? ocratic Party), but it has been especially pronounced among Latinos and Asian Americans. We consider possible reasons and discuss potential implications.

Earthquakes and Aftershocks: Race, Direct Democracy, and Partisan Change

Although dramatic partisan change among the electorate is infrequent, the issue agendas of parties may produce large shifts. A major cause of such change is the politics of race. In a political environment charged with racially oriented issues, racial groups often align themselves with different parties (as witnessed most recently in the American South). Yet, if racial appeals violate norms of equality, these appeals may rebound on the party using them. Consequently, members of the (white) racial majority and racially targeted minority may both move away from the offending party. Using data from the California Field Poll, we find that racially charged ballot propositions sponsored by the Republican party during the 1990s in California reversed the trend among Latinos and Anglos toward identifying as Republican, ceteris paribus, by shifting party attachments toward the Democratic party. Our results raise serious questions about the long‐term efficacy of racially divisive strategies for electoral gain.

Why Same-Sex Marriage Now?

Why Same-Sex Marriage Now? David R. Shumway (bio) In the recent U.S. election, one could hear both Republicans and Democrats declaring their opposition to gay marriage by asserting, "I believe marriage is between a man and a woman." Such a linguistic construction sounds awkward, as if a word were left out, making marriage into a place located between two other places. The sentence would be less awkward if it told us what a marriage was; for example, "a contract between a man and woman." But the politicians didn't seem to want to characterize marriage in any way except as heterosexual. A more accurate statement of the position would have been, "I believe marriage should be restricted to heterosexual relationships," but such a phrasing would have admitted the unpopular truth that a restriction was being sought and it would have introduced a word (heterosexual) that some voters might not have understood—or worse, might have been offended by, given the mere mention of "sexual." Then there is the matter of the phrase being a statement of belief. The politicians might have said that in our culture marriage has been a union between one man and one woman, but that would have raised the question of why such a definition should continue to be observed. In the United States, appeals to the rule of tradition have not been common or notably persuasive. Of course, opposition to gay marriage does rest significantly on an appeal to the common sense view that marriage has an essence: that it rightly has only one form, heterosexual monogamy. Thus, the politicians' statement asserts that essence, while avoiding [End Page 73] mention of the theological or metaphysical underpinnings essences require. The need for such an awkward statement as "marriage is between a man and a woman" derives from the fact that the definition of marriage has undergone enormous changes during the past 100 years, thus making an appeal to a single shared conception of marriage highly problematic. It is my argument that the very salience of the issue of gay marriage has been made possible by the rise of a new discourse of love in which marriage is rendered only one among many different forms that sexually invested relationships may take. Gay marriage could become thinkable only when marriage stopped being primarily about the accumulation, preservation and transmission of property—its traditional function prior to the twentieth century. Once freed from these social functions, however, marriage could become what it is for most Americans—in red and blue states—today: a relationship that exists for the benefit of the two individuals involved. And if marriage is so defined, then there is no obvious reason why those individuals must of be of different genders. My goal in this essay is not to argue the case for gay marriage, but rather to show why this idea has become acceptable to many Americans and why it is likely that its support will grow rather than shrink. While opponents of gay marriage seem to have had an unbroken string of successes at the ballot box, the premise of this essay is that the degree of support for gay marriage is more in need of explanation than is opposition to it. While it is true that a majority of Americans oppose legalization of same-sex marriage, more than 40 per cent favor it (ABC News/Washington Post). That is remarkable, considering same-sex marriage wasn't a significant part of public debate until 1993, when the state supreme court in Hawaii held that the state constitution required same-sex partners to be afforded the same rights as heterosexual partners. A search of the usual databases showed no articles on the topic of gay marriage in mainstream popular magazines prior to 1993. Moreover, public opinion on the issue has shifted significantly in recent years. A Field Poll of California adults shows that the percentage who approve of same-sex marriage has increased from 28 in 1977 to 42 in 2003. Why has same-sex marriage gone from a non-issue to major issue and, in the process, achieved increased support in public opinion polls? The answer has as much to do...