Whitman, Brown tied in latest Field Poll

Sacramento Bee ^ | 9/23/10 | Jack Chang

[SmithL]

After months of negative advertising fueled by more than $100 million in campaign spending, the California governor's race is the closest it's been this near the election in two decades.

Six weeks from Nov. 2, Republican Meg Whitman and Democrat Jerry Brown are dead even, and voters are increasingly negative about both of them, according to a nonpartisan Field Poll released Wednesday.

"This race is boiling down to a tough decision," said Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo. "More voters hold negative than positive impressions of the candidates, and that contributes to the situation."

Brown and Whitman each polled 41 percent of likely voters.

A governor's race hasn't been this close at this stage since 1990, when then-U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson and Democrat Dianne Feinstein were in a statistical tie in late August.

Nearly a fifth of voters remain undecided, . . .

[SmithL]

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

the California governor's race is the closest it's been this near the election in two decades

You know, if I'd had to put up with two decades of campaign adds from Whitman and Brown, I wouldn't like them either.

[WebFocus]

Whitman and Fiorina will rise and fall together. One will carry the coattails of the other.

Most voters in my experience seldom go to the exercise of pulling levers one by one ( e.g., I’ll vote for Whitman but not Fiorina but Boxer ).

The majority simply pulls the lever for the “R” or the “D”.

Like it or not, Whitman AND Fiorina are practically a package deal in California.

[SmithL]

And, from the SF Chronicle"

Whitman closes gender gap with Dems

Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has nearly erased Democrats' historic "gender gap" advantage with women voters in California, a new Field Poll shows, but she remains tied with state Attorney General Jerry Brown despite her record-shattering $119 million in personal spending.

. . .

With female voters evenly divided between the two candidates, at 41 percent each, Whitman is "negating the Democratic advantage among female voters, who have voted for Democrats by double-digit margins over the last 20 years," DiCamillo said. "A female Republican is making it an even race; there's no gender gap at all."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/22/MNL51FHUM8.DTL&tsp=1

[Republic Rocker]

This stalemate is insane..... we are talking about our state of affairs which have been led by Dimcraps in Sacramento for decades and it has turned us into a laughing stock. A broke state of ideas and fiscal malaise. ENOUGH! Right? Duh? A tie with old f*rt no ideas Jerry Brown? Disgusting.

[Prokopton]

The poll was conducted Sept. 14-21 via telephone, in English and Spanish, among 599 Californians deemed likely to vote in the Nov. 2 election...

Don't you have to be a U.S. citizen to vote, and don't you have to know how to speak English to become a U.S. citizen?

[CarWashMan]

Brown and Boxer will win if it is close. The unions and Hispanic grievance groups will see to that. The dead, homeless, and mentally disabled will be voting in record numbers. And surprise, surprise they will vote for the Dems.

[bwc2221]

If Whitman loses, it will be an incredibly costly loss for her. Meg has dumped $120 million of her own money into the race.

[wac3rd]

Brown is fueled by fat union (read: taxpayer) cash, Soros and every far Left group known to mankind to keep Statist-Open Border power. Under Moonbeam, CA will fail. Not a joke, it will declare bankruptcy.

[WebFocus]

RE: If Whitman loses, it will be an incredibly costly loss for her. Meg has dumped $120 million of her own money into the race.

---

A reporter wrote ( I forget where ) that she’s prepared to spend $150 Million on this campaign.

Note: The latest figures after she was listed in the Forbes 2010 top billionaires in the country shows that her net worth has grown to $1.5 Billion. This means she’s merely spending 10% of her wealth.

Heck, she can lose half of her wealth and she’d still be worth $750M.

Perhaps Whitman’s and to a lesser extent, Fiorina’s wealth might even become a disadvantage in lefty California, where rich and successful people are considered “evil” folks who need to be brought down by government for the sake of FAIRNESS.

[cookcounty]

I know from my visits there that the average Californian has an IQ in the low 80’s but perhaps it’s actually worse than that. Amazing.

[RockinRight]

Take out LA County, and it would be a swing state methinks, even with SF still there.

[calcowgirl]

Never have we had such terrible choices. The more they saturate the airwaves, the more people dislike both of them.

From the Field Poll (PDF):

"Despite massive media coverage and unprecedented campaign expenditures made by the candidates, the only statistically significant change in the governor’s race since July relates to a slight increase in the proportion (18%) of voters who are undecided or say they are not inclined to vote for either candidate."