Matier and Ross have the scoop (scroll down) on a weekend poll with disturbing numbers for Bill Simon:
SIMON’S SLIDE: A new poll — taken over the weekend — shows embattled Republican gubernatorial challenger Bill Simon trailing embattled Gov. Gray Davis by a whopping 17 points.
The poll has Davis 47, Simon 30; last numbers were 41/40. Davis is approaching 50% for the first time in the entire campaign, and Simon has lost 25% of his support. Simon is no Dick Riordan, and Gray’s $10M investment in getting Simon a victory in the primary has paid off handsomely. Gray’s still got $30M in the bank, compared to $5M for Simon, so expect wall-to-wall attack ads from Gray until Nov. 5, and little in the way of response from Simon, who now has to face the prospect of investing more of his personal fortune in what’s almost certainly a losing race. My guess is that he’s not that dumb, and won’t write the campaign another check.