Around the state

FRESNO — California broke out of its nearly two-week heat wave Friday, but not before searing temperatures caused as many as 141 deaths and did untold damage to crops.

Authorities raised their count of possible heat-related deaths by more than 40 on Friday. The big increase came primarily from Los Angeles County and Central Valley counties where coroners struggled to keep up.

Stanislaus County, which includes Modesto, has reported 29 heat-related deaths. It normally sees just one such death a year, county emergency services spokesman David Jones said.

The counties with the highest number of suspected heat-related deaths include Fresno with 27, Sacramento with 13, Merced with 11, Kern with 10 and Los Angeles with nine.

Poll shows support slipping for record bond package

SACRAMENTO — Support has slipped for two of the four bond measures that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has touted as the centerpiece of his re-election bid, raising doubts about whether voters will approve a public works package, according to a poll released Friday.

Voters have turned against a housing bond, and support for a $4.1 billion levee bond has dropped 11 points, although it still leads by a significant margin.

The latest Field Poll also showed a slight drop in support for the largest of the four bonds, a $19.9 billion transportation measure, and continued support, especially among Democrats, for an education bond for new schools.

Mark DiCamillo, director of the nonpartisan Field Poll, said the bonds’ falling poll numbers can largely be attributed to eroding support among Republicans.

With four months to go before the November election, Republicans support only the transportation bond.

"The visible support of the governor during this campaign could have a big effect on whether these four bonds pass,” DiCamillo said. "Time’s passing and the memory of them being the governor’s plan is fading. Republicans are reverting to their innate desire not to pass on large spending to the state.”

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides said Thursday Schwarzenegger has deliberately neglected the housing bond, which Democrats demanded be part of the compromise public works package. Schwarzenegger’s Republican base opposes the $2.8 billion housing component by a more than 2 to 1 margin.

"The Governor seems to have flip-flopped and abandoned his support for the housing bond. He was ineffective in mustering support for it among members of his own party in the Legislature, and now he appears to have thrown it over the side after it made the ballot,” Angelides said.

Julie Soderlund, press secretary for the governor’s campaign, said Schwarzenegger supports all of the infrastructure bonds.

"The governor is looking forward to campaigning up and down the state with members of both parties to pass this historic plan to rebuild California and move the state forward,” she said.

Responding to Angelides’ statement, Soderlund warned that Angelides’ "negativity and pessimism” wouldn’t resonate with voters.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, however, said he was deeply troubled by the Field Poll numbers.

"The message here is that we haven’t done a real good job in convincing voters how important it is to invest in California’s infrastructure,” said Nunez, who along with other Democratic leaders, flew around the state with Schwarzenegger in May to trumpet the $37.3 billion bond package.

Nunez said there’s enough bipartisan blame to go around for the bonds’ falling popularity.

"You have to wonder if this is front and center on the governor’s agenda. His first priority is getting re-elected. My first priority is getting members of my own party elected ... somehow this infrastructure package has got to work it’s way to the top and become a priority for both sides.”

Schwarzenegger, Nunez and other proponents also have forces of history and the economy against them.

Including losses in June’s primary for preschool and library measures, voters have defeated 10 straight initiatives since last fall’s special election.

The Field Poll, which surveyed 384 likely voters between July 10-23 and had a sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points, pegged support for the housing bond at 33 percent; 42 percent of likely voters said they would vote against it, 25 percent said they hadn’t yet made up their mind.

The levee bond, which an Associated Press review found contains little guidance for how lawmakers would carve up more than $3 billion in flood-control funding, saw the largest drop of any of the bonds. Support for the measure dropped from 58 percent in late May, to 47 percent; 20 percent of voters were undecided.

A majority, 54 percent, still support the transportation bond. The education bond also leads with 48 percent in favor and 37 percent opposed.

Field also found that voters support a $5.4 billion water and park bond that qualified through the signature process: 49 percent were in favor, 31 percent opposed.<