Poll: Whitman's lead over Poizner crumbles

Sacramento Bee ^ | 5/19/10 | Jack Chang

[SmithL]

The past month has not been kind to Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman.

The first hit came when her rival Steve Poizner and unions went after her ties to the investment firm Goldman Sachs just as federal investigators launched a criminal probe into the company.

Republicans around the country then started rallying around a controversial Arizona law targeting illegal immigrants at the same time Poizner claimed the tough-on-immigration mantle in the race.

The toll the attacks have taken on Whitman's once-unbeatable candidacy became clear Wednesday, when the first major public poll to be released since March showed that Whitman's 50-point lead over Poizner among likely Republican primary voters had collapsed to just nine percentage points.

"Meg Whitman was a fresh candidate," said Thad Kousser, a UC San Diego political science professor. "It's easy to fall in love with them but it's easy to fall out of love with fresh candidates with every piece of new information you know about them."

The latest poll was conducted by the nonprofit Public Policy Institute of California. Its most telling number, said president Mark Baldassare, was the 31 percent of Republicans who remain undecided

[svcw]

Well, I hate to admit this but my daughter is right “I don’t know everything”. Of course, I am not telling her that.

[eclecticEel]

Well, I won’t be voting for Whitman under any circumstance. Not now and not in November. I hope Poizner’s able to pull it off.

[achilles2000]

Thanks for the perspective on Poizner...