The mood of voters in California is definitely souring as we head toward the midterm elections this November. We already learned that a strong majority of the state’s residents believe that California is on the wrong track and an equally large majority disapprove of Governor Gavin Newsom’s performance. But the lack of joy is clearly spreading around to other once-popular elected officials. A new poll from Berkeley indicates that Senator Dianne Feinstein’s support has cratered to levels never seen since she first took office in 1992. And Vice President Kamala Harris is also far underwater in her home state. How much more of this can the Democrats survive in the Golden State? (LA Times)

Views of Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s job performance have tumbled to the lowest point in her three-decade Senate career, with just 30% of California voters giving her positive marks in a new UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times.

Respondents gave similarly unenthusiastic marks to Vice President Kamala Harris, whose popularity is underwater, with 38% approval and 46% disapproval, while they are evenly divided in their rating of President Biden. The assessments of both Biden and Harris dropped sharply from last summer, in line with their slumping poll numbers nationwide.

Amid the broadly pessimistic mood of Californian voters, two-thirds of whom believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, the lagging approval for Democrats Feinstein and Harris stands out, said Mark DiCamillo, director of the IGS poll.

During a quick search, I was unable to find a single poll prior to this year where Feinstein’s approval rating dropped below 50%. This sudden plunge to 30 seems to be indicative of a lot more than the voters’ feelings about Feinstein individually. They are looking down on the entire Senate and the Biden administration as well at this point.

The views of individual demographic groups don’t hold any better news for the senator. She’s underwater with those who identify as “strongly liberal.” Voters aged 18 to 39 have her below 40%, along with Asian and Hispanic residents. Even among women – typically her strongest base of support – only 33% approve of her now, with 42% disapproving.

Kamala Harris doesn’t fare much better. She’s registering a 38/46 split and she’s even below 45 in both her original home in San Francisco and her new home in Los Angeles. Californians are apparently in a dour mood when it comes to anyone holding elected office at this point.

That doesn’t mean that Republicans are going to experience some sort of resurgence in a suddenly reddening California. The voters there have proven repeatedly that they would rather vote for a Democrat they hate and anyone with an “R” after their name, no matter how promising the Republican’s platform might appear. The state’s voters exemplify the “insanity” phenomenon of continuing to do the same thing over and over while expecting different results. They have a lot in common with the voters in Baltimore, Maryland in that regard.

But while we shouldn’t expect any major shakeups in California at the state and federal levels in the next pair of election cycles, voters who are this despondent don’t tend to turn out in large numbers. And that sort of downturn could still impact a number of down-ballot races.