TIMES POLL : Satisfaction With Reagan Pays Bush Dividends

Apparently content with eight years of the Reagan presidency, Orange County voters have a more favorable impression of Vice President George Bush than voters in the rest of the state, the Los Angeles Times Poll has found.

The survey also showed, however, that more than half of the voters surveyed had a favorable impression of his Democratic opponent for the presidency, Michael S. Dukakis.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the poll indicated that traffic remains one of the most important issues facing Orange County

residents and is a much bigger issue here than in the rest of the state. Statewide, traffic was not among major issues identified by voters.

The survey was conducted Tuesday at polling places throughout the state and included interviews with voters at eight randomly selected precincts in Orange County: one each in Laguna Niguel, Irvine, Mission Viejo, Brea, Garden Grove, Fullerton and two in Westminster. A total of 353 Orange County voters, both Democrats and Republicans, were surveyed.

For a sampling of this size, the margin of error could be plus or minus six percentage points.

Among Orange County voters, Bush scored a favorable rating of 52%, compared to 35% in the rest of the state. Likewise, 36% of the people questioned in Orange County had an unfavorable impression of the vice president, compared to almost half--49%--statewide.

The county’s general contentment with President Reagan and his policies was also reflected when voters were asked if the next President needed to make basic changes in the policies and programs of the past eight years.

Only 53% of the Orange County voters, compared to 70% across the state, agreed that the next President should make basic policy changes.

Also doing well with Orange County voters was Gov. George Deukmejian, scoring a favorable rating of 60%; 26% said they viewed him unfavorably. That was much better than in other parts of California, where Deukmejian’s favorable rating slipped to 45%, with 38% saying they saw him in an unfavorable light.

Dukakis enjoyed a 51% favorable ranking in Orange County, about the same as in the rest of the state, but Orange County voters were less tolerant of Democratic candidate Jesse Jackson. While Jackson had a 41% favorable rating in the rest of the state, that dropped to 24%, with a 55% unfavorable rating, in Orange County.

On the question of traffic, only 4% of the voters surveyed statewide ranked it as a major concern. By contrast, 17% of those interviewed in Orange County said traffic was the most important issue to them when they decided how they would vote.

Still, traffic was not ranked as the most important issue by the largest number of county voters. Ranked ahead of traffic on the list of important issues were the deficit (33%), education (25%) and drugs (22%). Morality and taxes tied with traffic at 17%.

By comparison, the most important issue to voters in the rest of the state was the deficit, followed by drugs, education, morality and taxes.

On most of the statewide propositions on the ballot Tuesday, Orange County mirrored the rest of California, favoring bonds for new parks and education as well as limits on campaign contributions.

Like those elsewhere in California, an overwhelming number of Orange County voters--84%--agreed that campaign contributions from special interest groups were corrupting the state Legislature. Seventy-eight percent also felt--in line with the rest of California--that tax dollars should not be used to fund election campaigns.

County voters agreed that now is not the time to be borrowing more bond money for new programs, and 78% of those surveyed said the state should continue to fund highway construction on a pay-as-you-go basis with gasoline taxes and not by borrowing bond money that costs interest.