LOS ANGELES, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Voter preference for President Obama in California is high over potential Republican candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, a Los Angeles Times poll indicates.
Despite voter dissatisfaction, Obama led Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and 2008 GOP presidential hopeful, by 19 points, and Perry by 24 points, the poll conducted jointly by the Times and the University of Southern California's Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences released Sunday indicated.
Among Republicans, Perry and Romney were tied at 22 percent. Texas Rep. Ron Paul and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann barely reached double digits, and other candidates were well back of the two front-runners, the Times said.
Results indicate voters approved of Obama's handling of the presidency by a 50 percent-to-43 percent margin, down from a high of 60 percent a year after his election.
"Californians have growing concerns about the state of the economy and the president's performance on economic matters, but they don't see anyone on the Republican side [whom] they are willing to support," poll director Dan Schnur said.
Obama was the most popular politician in the poll, results indicate. House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, had a 22 percent positive rating.
The poll, conducted by the Republican firm American Viewpoint and the Democratic firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, surveyed 1,508 registered voters Aug. 17-28. The margin of error was 2.5 percentage points.
