New California Poll Results: Meg Whitman Takes the Lead Among Republicans for California’s Governor

Meg Whitman is now capturing 37% of the vote in the Republican Primary Election for Governor–a dramatic increase of more than 25% over a similar poll conducted earlier this year in June.

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Whitman has spent nearly twenty-million dollars to grow her name ID. That kind of unchecked promotion has yielded impressive results. Her opponents have chosen not to join her in the spending game thus far.

Sacramento, CA (PRWEB) November 6, 2009

Results from the latest Capitol Weekly/Probolsky Research California Poll were released today.

Meg Whitman is now capturing 37% of the vote in the Republican Primary Election for Governor–a dramatic increase of more than 25% over a similar poll conducted earlier this year in May. Whitman, for the moment, is the clear front-runner among Republican candidates, placing her well ahead of Tom Campbell and Steve Poizner.

Poll director Adam Probolsky says the surge in Whitman’s popularity is directly related to campaign spending, “Whitman has spent nearly twenty-million dollars to grow her name ID. That kind of unchecked promotion has yielded impressive results. Her opponents have chosen not to join her in the spending game thus far.”

In the Democratic Primary for Governor, Jerry Brown, who now lacks a named opponent, captures 46% of the vote but 26% would choose someone else and 25% are undecided.

Other key findings included:

41% of Decline to State voters indicate they would choose to vote in a Democratic Primary Election, an increase of 8% since May
Over one-half of those who would vote in a Republican Primary Election become less likely to vote for Whitman knowing her scant voting record
Poizner’s past campaign contributions to former Vice President Al Gore and the Gore-Lieberman post-election vote recount makes nearly 70% of Republican Primary Election voters less likely to cast their ballot for Poizner
Age doesn’t appear to be a consideration factor to those who would vote in the Democratic Primary Election, with 51% indicating that it makes no difference to them that if elected, Jerry Brown at the age of 72 will be the oldest Governor California has ever had
Most voters feel that California is on the wrong track
One-half of voters give the legacy of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s time in office a “D” or “F” grade
52% of respondents say marijuana should remain illegal

The in-depth Capitol Weekly article can be found here, with the full research report at http://www.probolskyresearch.com ("Research Results").

The Capitol Weekly/Probolsky Research California Poll is a quarterly statewide survey of voters sponsored by Capitol Weekly, California’s only newspaper devoted solely to state politics, in conjunction with Probolsky Research LLC, a California-based full service public opinion research and polling firm.

The publishers of Capitol Weekly are Arnold and Karen York. The Yorks also publish the Malibu Times.

Probolsky Research is a full service opinion research organization, with government, corporate and political practice areas.

A total of 750 California voters who are likely to vote in the 2010 Primary Election were polled. A survey of this size yields a margin of error of +/-3.7%.

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