California: Steve Poizner

When I first heard Tom Campbell liken the 2010 Republican gubernatorial primary to the 1998 Democratic gubernatorial primary, I was pretty intrigued. Campbell is the underdog with the long resume of government service, a la Gray Davis. Steve Poizner and...

Several times a week, I read about how terrible, just terrible it is that Meg Whitman is declining interviews from California reporters, skipping debates, and not behaving like a serious candidate for governor.

Steve Poizner’s campaign has made this almost a daily drumbeat; “If Meg Whitman can't stand up to questions, how can she stand up for California?” read part of a state from Poizner senior advisor Kevin Spillane last week. And over at Calbuzz, Phil Trounstine and Jerry Roberts are “fuming” about Meg’s “ducking serious questions from California political writers for months.”

Expect more of the same today, when her GOP rivals -- Poizner and Tom Campbell--are scheduled to debate the measures on tomorrow’s special election ballot.

I have a bit of advice for the Meg bashers: Take a deep breath. And get a life.

read more

Two polls were actually released today on the 2010 California Governor's race.  The Field Poll did an extensive poll of the race, including favorability ratings, and Lake Research, a Democratic firm, did their own poll which included some head-to-head matchups.

Field's poll included Dianne Feinstein and I don't think the results were all that great for her.  In the primary she polls well under 50%, compared to earlier polls which had her closer to that number.

Dianne Feinstein: 38%
Jerry Brown: 16%
Antonio Villaraigosa: 16%
Gavin Newsom: 10%
John Garamendi: 4%
Steve Westly: 2%
Bill Lockyer: 1%
Jack O'Connell: 1%
Undecided: 12%

Considering she's the most well-known figure in California politics, and that there won't be that many competitors in the final field, that's not a runaway at all.

That's California's unemployment rate as of January, a 1.4 percentage point increase (i.e. an enormous leap) over the December numbers, and a big increase over the 6.1% rate as of January 2008.

The Employment Development Department will not release the county-based stats until next week, but based on earlier reports we can assume that the hardest-hit parts of the state are those that happen to be represented by Republicans - the Central Valley, which is suffering from a grapes of wrath kind of economic crisis as well as Sacramento, which is being hit hard by the Republican attack on government. Spending cuts have wide consequences.