Last year, Republican Carly Fiorina put a scare into the Democratic Party by making her race against incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) seem close, if only for a few months. Yet Republicans may have less cause for excitement when they challenge Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) in 2012, as a new PPP poll shows Feinstein dominating a slate of prominent GOP challengers by anywhere from 14 to 34 points.
Feinstein’s toughest match in the poll came from former Rep. Tom Campbell, whom she led by 14 points, 51% to 37%. Steve Poizner, who lost a Republican gubernatorial primary bid last year, came next, trailing Feinstein 52% to 34%. No other challenger came within 20 points.
Fiorina ultimately lost to Boxer by a 10 point margin in the midterms, but if she were the GOP nominee again in 2012, the poll shows her trailing Feinstein by twice as much, 55% to 35%. Meg Whitman, who broke a record for campaign self-financing in her failed gubernatorial campaign, also trailed Feinstein 55% to 35%, while Rep. Darrell Issa lagged by 21 points, 54% to 33%
As for robot-warrior-turned-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the poll showed him getting blown out 59% to 25%.
Oddly enough, name recognition actually played against the GOP candidates in the poll; the more people who knew them, the worse they performed in the poll.
Schwarzenegger, who by far performed the worst in the head-to-head match-ups, was known to all but 9% of the poll’s respondents. However, 65% of respondents said they had an unfavorable opinion of the former governor. Likewise, only 22% of respondents didn’t know Whitman well enough to form an opinion of her, yet exactly half viewed her unfavorably. On the other hand, 61% of respondents had no opinion of Tom Campbell, yet he polled the closest to Feinstein.
Whitman’s extremely low favorable rating might give her pause if she considers running for public office again, as has been rumored. Whitman spent a record $144 million out of pocket — and $178.5 million overall — on her gubernatorial campaign, only to be soundly defeated by Jerry Brown
Boxer looked weak in 2010 in part dude to the anti-incumbent wave nationwide. But she was also hindered by a low approval rating. The PPP poll found that 45% of respondents approved of her job performance, while 47% disapproved.
By comparison, Feinstein is fairly popular, posting a 50% approval rating versus a 41% disapproval rating in the PPP poll.
The PPP poll was conducted January 28-30 among 892 California voters. It has a margin of error of 3.3%.
