Poll: Opinions of Mayor Garcetti Favorable

By City News Service

Mayor Eric Garcetti left a positive impression on constituents in his first 100 days in office, though many did not seem to know him well enough to explain exactly why they liked or disliked him, according to a poll released Monday.

Garcetti received a 56 percent approval rate for his first few months as mayor, according to the Pat Brown Institute/Cal State University Los Angeles Poll based on responses from 501 registered voters.

The majority polled by telephone between Oct. 2-5 could not specify reasons for their feelings about the mayor. One-third of those polled said they did not know the new mayor well enough to form an opinion about him.

The new mayor is well-liked across a wide cross-section of ethnic communities, according to the poll results.

"Mayor Garcetti is getting good reviews from the voters as he introduces himself as the city's most visible public official. The council presidency, his previous position, is not as well known to voters," said Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute and director of the PBI/CSULA poll.

"The voters do not yet know him well, but they seem to be giving him a strong opening to become successful," he said.

A key challenge faced by Garcetti during his first 100 days as the city's chief executive was labor negotiations with the Department of Water and Power workers' union, but according to the poll, about 75 percent of registered voters said they did not know enough about the issue to decide if they approved of how he handled the issue.

One-quarter of those polled "strongly disapprove" of the DWP while a majority approved of the utility's performance.

Sonenshein observed that while voters often have strong opinions about the police department, they "are still developing their views about the DWP."

Top issues for the voters polled were the economy and job creation, congestion and overcrowding and crime, violence and drugs.