The Los Angeles Times poll of the California gubernatorial race released this weekend shows Democrat Jerry Brown pulling away from Republican Meg Whitman.
The numbers: Brown 52%, Whitman 39%. The survey of likely voters has a ±3.2% margin of error. In the previous poll from a month ago, Brown was ahead by a narrower 49%-44%.
The polling shows some anecdotal evidence that Whitman’s massive personal spending on the race –Â she has put in more than $141 million of her own money on the race –Â may have over-saturated the market and only alienated some voters:
Paula Bennett, a schoolteacher in the Sacramento-area town of Acampo, said she was drawn to Brown in part by the blizzard of cash Whitman has thrown at the race.
“I like the little guy; he didn’t have the money behind him like she did,” she said in a follow-up interview, adding that she sided with Brown for the same reason that she favors a mom-and-pop establishment over a retail behemoth.
The TPM Poll Average shows Brown ahead by 48.2%-41.4%. As you can see from the graph below, Whitman clearly gained steam during the summer and then pulled ahead in August, only to collapse over the past two months:
