The tens of millions in personal funds that billionaire Republican Meg Whitman has pumped into the California gubernatorial race are still paying off. According to a new poll from the well-respected Field polling firm, Whitman, who won her party’s nomination June 8, continues to run neck-and-neck with Democratic nominee Jerry Brown. But internals of the poll show that Whitman is making inroads among the Democratic base — and tearing down Brown in the process.
The Field Poll shows Brown leading by just one point, 44-43. The survey of 1,005 likely voters has a margin of error of 3.2%. The last Field Poll of the race, conducted in March, in the midst of the highly publicized GOP primary, also showed the race to be a tie but showed Whitman with a slight advantage, leading Brown 46-43.
The TPM Poll Average for the race shows Brown ahead 45.2-40.9.
The new Field Poll adds fuel to stories that Brown’s campaign is lagging in the face of Whitman’s all-out, spare-no-expenses effort. Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times reported Brown “has yet to reach out to key voter blocs in any strategic way and has gotten more attention for gaffes than for policy proposals,” leading some Democrats to become “nervous about their candidate’s prospects in the fall.”
The San Francisco Chronicle reported today that the internals of the new Field Poll show Whitman has “cut [Brown’s] lead among Latino voters and other key Democratic constituencies” thanks to — the paper says — her “massive advertising blitz” that has targeted Latinos.
The poll does show that Whitman still has work to do. Though she has “helped sour voters’ views of Brown,” and raised his unfavorables, according to the Chronicle, she still faces favorability problems of her own. Forty-two percent of respondents said they had an unfavorable view of Whitman, a big increase from the 27% who said the same thing in March.
