Former congressman Tom Campbell has an early lead in the race for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination, having brushed past former HP executive Carly Fiorina almost as soon as he got in the race.
That’s one highlight of a poll released today by the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan think tank.
Campbell, who dropped out of the governor’s race to seek the GOP senate nomination, was preferred by 27 percent of likely Republican primary voters who were contacted by the PPIC. Fiorina, the former Hewlett Packard CEO, was favored by 15 percent. In third place was Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, with 8 percent. Almost half the prospective voters were undecided.
Tom Campbell
Campbell, former dean of the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's finance director for two years, has said he's going to run a campaign focused "entirely (about) the economic issue, the size of the federal government, the deficit, and the 293 years to pay back what we presently owe.'' The PPIC said Campbell leads among both men and women who are likely to vote.
The survey, conducted from January 12 to 19, shows that Sen. Barbara Boxer, the incumbent Democrat, has a four-point lead over Campbell (45 percent to 41 percent) in a head-to-head matchup. Campbell won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2000, but was soundly trounced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
In the campaign to replace Schwarzenegger, Attorney General Jerry Brown, the Democrats’ likely nominee, holds a five-point lead over the Republican front-runner, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, 41 percent to 36 percent, in a hypothetical matchup. Twenty-three percent of those surveyed were undecided.
Jerry Brown
Still, Campbell’s departure from the governor’s race benefited Whitman, the PPIC said. She increased her lead over state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner (41 percent to 11 percent) since December (32 percent to 8 percent).
Pollster Mark Baldassare said the results portray California voters as worried about the economy and the state’s direction. Schwarzenegger’s approval rating was 30 percent, and the Legislature’s was 18 percent, both “near record lows,” he noted.
"Their view of state government has hit a new, grim milestone," Baldassare wrote. "Just 28 percent of all adults say the two branches of government will be able to work together to accomplish a lot in the next year – the lowest level since the PPIC survey began asking the question in January 2006."
At the same time, California voters want to handle some important policy decisions themselves, even if they're a bit vague on the facts:
On the issue of long-term reform of the budget process, most (72 percent) Californians believe that they – not their leaders – should make reform decisions at the ballot box. However, Californians’ knowledge is far from perfect when it comes to understanding the budget. Only 28 percent correctly identify personal income tax as the area representing most of the revenue. Thirty percent name the sales tax as the biggest source of revenue when it is actually a distant No. 2.
Californians want to protect the education budget – 66 percent of respondents said they’d pay more taxes to do it – and they're willing to cut spending on prisons to help balance the budget. But overall, the poll suggests voters are divided on how best to tackle the $20 billion budget deficit.
President’s Obama’s approval rating among Californians is 61 percent – a nine-point drop since February 2009. Voters’ opinion of Congress is low – 37 percent – virtually unchanged from a year ago.
The full report is here.
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