Seventy-two percent of California voters disapproved of the way Davis has handled his job as governor; half "strongly" disapproved. Even most Democrats disapproved. And 83 percent of voters said the state's economy is in bad shape — never good for incumbents.

Given a chance to act, Californians took it.

Davis Job Approval
	APPROVE	DISAPPROVE
All	27%	72%
Democrats	47%	52%
Independents	24%	75%
Republicans	8%	91%

Indeed, once the recall petitions were filed, Davis may never have had a chance. Eighty-three percent of voters decided on their recall vote before last week, including 67 percent who decided more than a month ago; just nine percent decided in the last few days. It didn't much matter: Majorities voted against Davis no matter when they decided.

In 2002 Davis overcame 61 percent disapproval to win re-election (with only a plurality of the vote). But 72 percent was too much for him to surmount.

His loss was Cruz Bustamante's as well, and Schwarzenegger's gain. There's no sign the late-breaking groping charges helped either Democrat, or hurt Schwarzenegger. And Bustamante was hit by a triple whammy: Davis' disapproval, economic discontent and weak personal appeal.

Schwarzenegger

As for Schwarzenegger, he's won a tough part to play. His favorability rating is not great — among all voters, just 50 percent viewed him favorably, 45 percent unfavorably. Sixty-three percent said he didn't do enough to address the issues. He won by 14 points among voters who say the economy's in bad shape — presumably leaving him with a mandate to make it better, or pay the price.

In fact, Schwarzenegger will face immediate pressure to resolve the state's budget deficit without raising taxes: He lost voters who said a tax hike will be necessary, but strongly won those who said the budget can be fixed without higher taxes.

Can Calif. Budget Be Balanced Without Raising Taxes?
	YES	NO
All	46%	47%
Schwarzenegger	60%	31%
Bustamante	21%	48%

Ratings of the State Economy
Positive	16%
Negative	83%

Schwarzenegger also will need to guard his base — a potentially tricky task for a moderate Republican. He won 74 percent of conservative Republicans, 56 percent of anti-abortion voters, 58 percent of those who oppose issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and 59 percent of whose who don't like the state's domestic partner law.

Nonetheless, Schwarzenegger scored a clean win. If he'd faced only Bustamante on the ballot, voters said they'd have voted for Schwarzenegger by 53-39 percent. (The rest would've sat it out). And Schwarzenegger won an impressive 30 percent of Latinos; he also got a decent chunk of Democratic defectors (18 percent); did well among union members (37 percent); and prevailed among independents (with 43 percent).

Schwarzenegger had a slight gender gap, but not a garish one: He did seven points better with men than with women, but won both sexes — men by 49-33 percent over Bustamante, women by 42-37 percent. Remarkably, he even won 20 percent of liberal women.

Schwarzenegger's favorability rating was 46-48 percent among women, compared to 53-42 percent among men — again a gap, but not a blazing one. Bustamante's favorability rating was worse — among women, 37-56 percent; among men, 36-59 percent.

Favorability Ratings
Candidate	All	Men	Women
Schwarzenegger Favorable	50%	53%	46%
Schwarzenegger Unfavorable	45%	42%	48%
Davis Favorable	37%	36%	37%
Davis Unfavorable	57%	59%	56%

Bustamante did poorly on several scores. He didn't win much more support from women than men, which is unusual for a Democrat. And he did not hold his base, winning just 69 percent of Democrats, an especially dismal 52 percent of Latinos, 41 percent of union household voters and 44 percent of union members.

Bustamante won among those who approved of Davis' job performance, and even among those who "somewhat" disapproved. But Schwarzenegger hammered him among the half who "strongly" disapproved of Davis, winning them by 73-7 percent.

Vote Among Hispanics — Recall Davis?
Yes	47%
No	53%

Vote Among Hispanics — Replacement Candidates
Bustamante	52%
Schwarzenegger	30%
McClintock	9%

A majority said candidates' positions on issues were more important than their "leadership and personal qualities" (59-37 percent). Schwarzenegger narrowly won the "issues" voters, but won by a much broader margin (56-27 percent over Bustamante) among those who cared most about personal qualities — further suggesting that the groping scandal did not seriously damage him.

Davis

Tellingly, 52 percent of Democrats disapproved of his job performance, as did 75 percent of independents and a near-unanimous 91 percent of Republicans. A quarter of Democrats took the next step and voted to recall him, as did 55 percent of independents, the quintessential swing voters.

The electorate was about evenly divided between Democrats (39 percent of voters) and Republicans (37 percent). But that's not heinously different than it was in 1998 (when it was +5 Democrat). (Comparable data to 2002 aren't available, and 2000 is not a good comparison given the Gore draw.)

The California electorate was no more conservative than in the past; if anything there were more liberals voting than there were in 2000 and 1998. While liberals voted to retain Davis, moderates voted 57-43 percent to recall him, as did 86 percent of conservatives.

Women turned out in roughly their usual numbers (53 percent of voters). The gender gap on recall was smaller than it was on Davis-[Bill] Simon in 2002; women voted 53-47 percent for recall, men 60-40 percent.

Latinos bailed out on Davis. In 2002 they backed him by 65-24 percent. Tuesday they voted against recall, but only slightly — 53-47 percent.

Union turnout was about usual (32 percent of voters were from union households, including 20 percent who themselves are union members.) Union members voted 46-54 percent against recall — not strongly enough to save Davis. Union household members split 51-49 percent; non-union, 59-41 percent for recall.

Regionally, voters went 2-1 against the recall in the Bay Area, but overwhelmingly for it in Southern California (72-28 percent) and the inland valley (70-30 percent). Los Angeles County, usually Democratic, split 49-51 on recall. In the replacement vote, Schwarzenegger and Bustamante split L.A. County — despite Bustamante's 59 percent there in 2002.

Was it all worth it? Voters divided on whether recall was worth the cost or a waste of money, 47-49 percent.

Finally, Proposition 54, which would have limited the state's use of racial data, lost broadly, even among whites. Republicans favored it by 55-45, conservatives the same; but Democrats, independents, moderates and liberals all rejected it by large margins.

Methodology

This survey was conducted among 3,772 voters leaving their polling places on Oct. 7, 2003, and an additional 400 absentee voters interviewed before Election Day by telephone. The results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus two percentage points. Field work by Edison Media Research/Mitofsky International.

Previous ABCNEWS polls can be found in our Poll Vault.