The Pacific Poll 01-2

Title:  The Pacific Poll 01-2: San Diego Voter Priorities for 2001, The Energy Crisis, Opening the 
Mexican Border

Sponsor:        Pacific Opinions

Field Dates:    January 14-23, 2001

Sample:         A random sample of registered voters in San Diego County, California

Sample Size:    511 

Sample Notes:   Conducted in English and Spanish.  Companion Study with The Pacific Poll 01-1.

Interview Method:       Telephone


Please note that data purchased from Pacific Opinions may not be disseminated without written permission. 
The results of any secondary analyses conducted on the data may, however, be published with appropriate 
acknowledgements and source citation. 


Bibliographic Citation


Publications based upon Pacific Opinions data collections should acknowledge the source by means of a 
bibliographic citation. Citations should appear in footnotes or in the reference section of publications. 
The recommended bibliographic citation for this data collection is:
        
“The Pacific Poll 01-2: San Diego Voter Priorities for 2001, The Energy Crisis and Opening the Mexican 
Border”, January 9, 2001. Pacific Opinions. Irvine, CA. Pacific Opinions [distributor], 2001

 
Data Disclaimer


The original collector of the data, Pacific Opinions, bears no responsibility for uses of this collection 
or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses. 


Data Collection Description

SUMMARY: The purpose of this study was to assess voter attitudes towards the energy crisis in California, 
opening the Mexican border and general policy priorities for 2001 in San Diego County. Respondents were 
asked about their top priorities for local officials in 2001, whether or not they have heard of Governor 
Gray Davis, the Public Utilities Commission, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas and Electric, the 
San Diego County Board of Supervisors, The San Diego City Council, State Senator Steve Peace, San Diego 
Mayor Dick Murphy and Mexican President Vicente Fox and were asked if they had a favorable or unfavorable 
attitude toward each. Respondents were also asked who they felt was the most responsible for the energy 
crisis and how worried they were about electricity shortages or blackouts in their area. Respondents were 
asked how seriously they viewed the possibility of utility bankruptcy, and whether or not they felt the 
state should allow the utilities to go bankrupt. Further, respondents were asked a series of possible 
solutions to the energy crisis and how much of a difference they thought it would have on the current 
energy crisis. They were asked how much they spent last month on their electricity bill.  A series of 
questions were asked about proposals to open the border between the U.S. and Mexico: whether or not 
respondents favor doing so, who they felt would benefit the most from an open border, and perceived 
impact of an open border on the local economy.  Demographic variables include the length of time the 
respondent has been living in San Diego County and the United States, political party identification, 
strength of party identification, actual party registration of the respondent (from county election 
sources), education, the number of individuals over the age of 18 living in the respondent’s household, 
date of birth, marital status, ethnicity (if they identified Hispanic, a sub-category is included), 
household income, and gender.  There are also geographic variables including city of the respondent and a 
recoded variable for region of the county (North County, City of San Diego/La Jolla and the El 
Cajon/Chula Vista/Border area) and a dummy variable for whether or not the respondent lives in the City 
of San Diego.