They believed her more than they believed him.

A Survey USA poll of Californians conducted after Thursday’s hearing for the Union-Tribune/10News says that 60 percent of the respondents found Christine Blasey Ford’s story about sexual assault believable.

Thirty-five percent of those polled found Brett Kavanaugh’s denials believable.

Yet few opinions were changed about whether he should be seated on the U.S. Supreme Court.


Nine percent of those who supported his selection before the hearing now oppose it, while four percent who opposed it before now support it.

Thirty-one percent who supported his nomination still do and 45 percent who opposed it were unmoved.

The poll was taken shortly after a daylong televised hearing in Washington D.C. in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination Friday.

Much of the country was riveted by the testimony. The poll of 1,100 Californians found that 97 percent had been paying attention to news stories about the sexual-abuse allegations leading up to the hearing, and about 78 percent of them listened to at least some of the day’s testimony.


They were asked a series of questions about the two main participants, and the results often split along gender and political lines.

When asked whether they had favorable opinions of Kavanaugh, for example, 38 percent of the men and 27 percent of the women said yes. Among Republicans, 75 percent were favorable. Democrats — 7 percent.

Blasey Ford’s favorability was more evenly split, with 49 percent of both men and women saying yes. But while 72 percent of the Democrats found her so, only 15 percent of the Republicans did.


There were similar divides on the believability of the stories each told during the hearing. Women (62 percent) and Democrats (79 percent) were more likely to find her believable, while men (40 percent) and Republicans (76 percent) found him that way.

Forty-three percent of the respondents said they believed Blasey Ford had come forward on her own and was telling the truth, while 23 percent said she had been pressured into coming forward.

Nineteen percent said they believed she had been paid by others to make up the allegations.

Those results, too, showed a sharp divide by political affiliation, with 87 percent of Democrats believing Blasey Ford was telling the truth and 33 percent of Republicans feeling that way.


When asked to assume the truth of her allegations, 69 percent of the respondents said Kavanaugh is not the right person for the Supreme Court and 22 percent said he is.

Forty-two percent said if her story is true, the assault represents a criminal act.

They also were asked, if Kavanaugh is confirmed, how history will remember him. More people (36 percent) said he will come to be seen as an embarrassment than those who said he’ll be seen as a brilliant legal scholar (21 percent) or an unremarkable one (23 percent).

Fifty percent said confirming him will go down as one of democracy’s “darkest moments,” while smaller percentages said it would be one of democracy’s “finest hours” (13 percent) or a day quickly forgotten (21 percent).


For all its political and historic import, Thursday’s hearing left a bad taste in the mouths of the poll respondents. Only 6 percent said the process on display is how the system is supposed to work.


john.wilkens@sduniontribune.com