Americans Still Dreaming About California

"For the second year in a row, California edged out Florida and Hawaii in a Harris Poll last month, because people living elsewhere don't directly feel the effects of the state's travails, said David Krane, senior vice president at Harris Interactive. While California had a net loss of more than 755,000 U.S. residents from 1995 to 2000, in part due to notoriously high housing costs, Americans elsewhere have a different perception of the state's current woes, Krane said. The state is now drawing national attention with Arnold Schwarzenegger's announced candidacy Wednesday as a Republican in the recall election. Florida earned second-place honors for the second year in a row, down from the number-one position it held from 1997 to 2001, and Hawaii was third for the third time, in the Harris Interactive online survey of 2,215 Americans."