The latest Field Poll on the California governor’s race shows some interesting and bizarre things. Undecided voters have increased from 16 to 22 percent since July. This number usually decreases as election day approaches and voters get to know the candidates and develop a preference. That’s not happening in this race, where voters get to know the candidates and don’t like either one of them.
Field asked a question that many of us have been wondering about ever since Gray Davis duped Republicans of Principle into nominating Simon over Riordan, to wit:
The Field Poll tested the latent support for the two losing candidates in the GOP primary ? Riordan and California Secretary of State Bill Jones ? in hypothetical scenarios of each being the GOP nominee against Davis instead of Simon.
The results show that if Riordan were the GOP nominee, the former Los Angeles Mayor would be leading Davis by a wide fifteen-point margin ? 49% to 34%.
A large proportion (31%) of Democrats supports Riordan over Davis in the current survey. Riordan also gets huge support (72%) from Republican voters when paired against Davis. Among voters who currently prefer Davis over Simon, nearly one in four (23%) would leave Davis and support Riordan if the latter were on the ballot.
So there you have it, folks — a lackluster campaign by two lackluster candidates, made possible by the Republican Death Wish that nominated Simon.
One way to jazz it up is with a Riordan write-in campaign, another prospect Field surveyed:
The Field Poll attempted to measure the impact that a write-in campaign for either Riordan or Jones would have on the election outcome. The results show that when Riordan is the suggested write-in candidate he gets 24%, while Simon, the official ballot-listed GOP candidate, would get 19%. Davis still leads the field, but his total vote (36%) is seven points less than the combined Republican candidate vote of 43%.
So the margin between Riordan and Davis isn’t all that much, especially if the Green candiate, Peter Camejo, were to siphon off more than the 3% he’s polling today. Camejo has kicked his campaign into high gear with some juicy attacks on Davis:
In a Sacramento Press Club appearance that smacked of his firebrand days as a college activist, Camejo spared little time before targeting Davis.
“How do you get Gray Davis to change 180 degrees in two seconds?” Camejo asked. “Tell him the check bounced.”
If Camejo could get to 10%, and Riordan were to enter the race as a write-in, we’d have some action; if Simon were to drop out, we’d have a new governor. Bill, dude, think it over and do the right thing.