The new Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) Poll has, as usual, a lot of interesting information. (The real zinger to this piece, incidentally, is at the end.) The obvious stuff has already been reported in the mass press, so you know that Arnold Schwarzenegger is doing better with the public, people like that he is talking about “quality of life” issues, as the governor calls them, they’re for a big infrastructure bond, they are fine with his budget proposal, and so on. There’s no question that the new Team Schwarzenegger is doing much better. The U-boat is off the bottom of the ocean floor, beginning its ascent to the surface. But there is some cautionary information around this poll for the former action superstar, along with some other fascinating nuggets, with, as mentioned, the real zinger at the end.

A top Republican consultant notes that, while it’s good for the governor that his job approval numbers have gone up, from 33% to 40% among all Californians, and 38% to 45% among likely voters, “he’s nowhere near hitting his targets in key voter groups.” This is a significant problem, since he is a candidate with near universal name recognition running against candidates who have only a fraction of his recognizability. He’s also recovering while Democrats hold their fire against him. The only people attacking him are on the Republican right. There is no reason for me not to believe that, when the Democratic primary is over, the same Alliance for a Better California labor coalition that won last November, with strategist Gale Kaufman and company, will light up another murderous barrage against Schwarzenegger in the general election. Some other fascinating nuggets from the poll  …

* 61% say they’d rather pay higher taxes and get more government services. 31% pick lower taxes and fewer government services. The hardy independent crowd hardly predominates. This isn’t Utah. Of course, the dirty little secret is that people are really quite willing to have others pay more so they can get more.

* Overwhelming support for Schwarzenegger’s idea of a Big Bang Bond, 68% to 23%. But nearly half favor education being the top priority in infrastructure spending, only a quarter picking the Arnold emphasisis on transportation. Could be because Kaufman and her education lobby allies are right, that more money for education was the real message of 2005. Or it could be that respondents found the question confusing. The question referred to “surface transportation;” some may not have been sure what that meant. While there is strong support for Schwarzenegger’s $25 billion bond for this year, there is even stronger support for a $10 billion bond, like that first proposed last year by Senate President Don Perata.

* Raising the minimum wage is a consensus issue in California. 81% support it; only 18% don’t. For all the criticism of Schwarzenegger coming from Republican ranks on this  –  try to find a Republican legislator who’s for it  –  66% of Republicans support raising the minimum wage, making Arnold the mainstream California Republican on this issue.

* On the Iraq War and the Terror War, results to dash the hopes of the right and the left. Only 34% say it was worth going to war in Iraq; 62% now say no. Mission not accomplished. But in this blue state, a relatively low level of support for a favored activist issue, resisting a rollback of civil liberties. 50% of likely voters (including 41% of Democrats and 48% of independents) say it’s necessary to give up some civil liberties in order to fight terrorism in America; 46% say it’s not. Your lawyer is not here. Jack Bauer will be in shortly to ask you a few questions.

* The sleeper factoid in the poll, partisan identification. 42% say they are registered Democrats, 34% registered Republicans. But when asked which party they feel closer to, the numbers change. Badly for Republicans. 43% say they identify with Democrats; only 26% say Republicans. A sense of demoralization and dissatisfaction seems to have set in among nearly a quarter of Republican Party members. That can’t be good at the start of an election year.