Thread: California Governor: Brown Runs Stronger Than Feinstein

Election 2010: California Governor

California Governor: Brown Runs Stronger Than Feinstein

Friday, January 22, 2010

Some Democrats have speculated about Senator Dianne Feinstein entering this year’s race for governor in California, but former Governor Jerry Brown actually runs just a bit better against both of the major remaining Republican challengers in the race.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the Golden State finds Brown leading former eBay CEO Meg Whitman by four points, 43% to 39%. In November, the two were tied at 41% apiece.

Brown has a 10-point lead – 45% to 35% - over State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. He led Poizner 43% to 32% in the previous survey.

Throw Feinstein in the mix, and the race becomes a bit more competitive. She essentially runs even with Whitman, leading the Republican by just one point, 43% to 42%. Feinstein leads Poizner by four, 43% to 39%.

In all these match-ups, anywhere from six percent (6%) to nine percent (9%) of California voters prefer some other candidate and roughly 10% are undecided.

Another GOP contender, former Congressman Tom Cambpell, trailed Brown by nine points in November but has since quit the governor’s race to challenge Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer instead.

In the California Senate race, Boxer holds a narrow lead over Campbell and two other potential Republican challengers.

Voters not affiliated with either party prefer Whitman over Brown and both Republicans over Feinstein by double-digit margins. Against Poizner, Brown has a four-point edge among unafifliateds. In Massachusetts on Tuesday, unaffiliated voters favored the Republican candidate by a nearly three-to-one margin.

Men favor Whitman over Brown by 12 points and break even when Poizner’s the Republican in the race. Women support Brown over both Republican candidates by double-digits.

Against Feinstein, both GOP hopefuls carry male voters, while the Democratic senator leads among women.

Feinstein, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1990, has expressed no public interest in the governor’s race. Both parties will hold their primaries on June 8.

Twenty percent (20%) of voters have a very favorable view of Brown, while 22% regard him very unfavorably. Feinstein is seen very favorably by 28% and very unfavorably by 31%.

Whitman’s very favorables are 14%, her very unfavorables 10%. For Poizner, very favorables total eight percent (8%) and very unfavorables seven percent (7%).

Both Democrats as longtime statewide officeholders are much better-known than either Republican candidate.

At this point in a campaign, Rasmussen Reports considers the number of people with strong opinions more significant than the total favorable/unfavorable numbers.

Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is term-limited by law and cannot seek reelection next year. Only 29% approve of Schwarzennger’s job performance, while 72% disapprove. These numbers include give percent who Strongly Approve of the work he’s doing and 43$ who Strongly Disapprove.

Fifty-four percent (54%) of voters in California now approve of President Obama’s job performance, including 37% who Strongly Approve. Forty-three percent (43%) disapprove of how he is handling his job, with 35% who Strongly Disapprove. This is considerably higher than Obama’s job approval ratings in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.

Rasmussen Reports also has released data on the 2010 governor’s races in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Texas.

In 2008, Rasmussen Reports projected nationally that Obama would defeat John McCain by a 52% to 46% margin. Obama won 53% to 46%. Four years earlier, Rasmussen Reports projected the national vote totals for both George W. Bush and John Kerry within half-a-percentage-point.

In California during the 2008 campaign, Rasmussen Reports polling showed Barack Obama winning the state by a 61% to 34% margin. Obama won 61% to 37%. Four years earlier, Rasmussen Reports polling showed John Kerry leading George W. Bush in California 53% to 43%. Kerry won 54% to 44%.

In the 2006 California governor’s race, Rasmussen polling showed Arnold Schwarzenegger defeating Phil Angelides 53% to 40%. Schwarzenegger won 56% to 39%. In the 2006 race for U.S. Senate, Rasmussen polling showed Dianne Feinstein defeating Richard Mountjoy 58% to 35%. Feinstein won 60% to 35%.

See all Rasmussen Reports 2008 state results for president, Senate and governor. See 2006 results for Senate and governor. See 2004 state results for president.

For Election 2010, Rasmussen Reports has released Senate polls for Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. A commentary by Larry Sabato, suggests that if the election were held today, “the Democratic majority in the Senate would be reduced to just 52 seats.â€

This is why simply electing a member of one party to replace a member of another can be a double edge sword. While Campbell's record on balanced budgets is welcome, he studied economics at the University of Chicago, where his advisor was Milton Friedman. It was from that school of economics, and Dr. Friedman's teachings specifically, that the entire "Free Trade" movement came, bringing us, for example, the disaster of NAFTA.

From Campbell for Senate website

Meet Tom Campbell

Biography

Tom has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago. His faculty advisor was Milton Friedman. Prior to that, Tom had obtained his B.A. and M.A. degrees in economics from the University of Chicago, on the same day in 1973. He then entered Harvard Law School where he served on the Harvard Law Review Board of Editors. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Law in 1976. After law school, Tom served as law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White. Thereafter, Tom returned to the University of Chicago for his economics doctorate, received in 1980. His free market economics training cemented a life-long commitment to limited government and greater individual liberty.

In 1978, Tom married Susanne, his bride of now 31 years. From 1980-1981, Tom was a White House Fellow in the Office of the Chief of Staff. He then served in the Reagan Administration as Director of the Bureau of Competition, at the Federal Trade Commission from 1981 to 1983.

In 1983, Tom was offered a professorship at Stanford Law School. Tom received full tenure in 1987 at the age of 34. At Stanford, Tom’s classes included antitrust, international trade law, corporate law, and constitutional law, with a particular emphasis on the application of economics to legal problems. At Stanford, Susanne continued her life-long interest in Russia, becoming fluent in Russian, and managing tours to the then Soviet Union. In 1992, Berkeley’s Center for Research in Management hired Susanne to help establish a business school in St. Petersburg, Russia. She was the Executive Director of that program for 16 years.

In 1988, Tom again entered public service. Tom served as a United States Congressman for five terms representing districts in the Silicon Valley. He was also a California State Senator, and the Director of Finance for the State of California. In Congress, Tom served on the Judiciary Committee, the Joint Economic Committee, the Banking and Housing Committee and the International Relations Committee. He has served since 2004 on the Council of Economic Advisors to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. During Tom’s tenure as State Finance Director, California’s budget was balanced with no tax increases, no new borrowing, and no accounting gimmicks.

Tom has received many accolades for his public service. To name a few, the National Taxpayers Union Foundation named Tom the most frugal member of the 102nd Congress, based on net annualized spending reductions in legislation he proposed. The California Journal named Tom the #1 overall State Senator; the State Senate’s Best Problem-Solver, and the Most Ethical State Senator.

In 2002, Tom was appointed Dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. As Dean of Haas, Tom stressed the importance of corporate social responsibility and business ethics amid an era of corporate scandals. Under Tom’s Deanship, the newly formed Center for Responsible Business took firm root, as well as the Center for Non Profit Management. The Haas School’s rankings shot up in every category and every survey during Tom’s tenure as Dean; most dramatically, reaching the rank of no. 2 in the nation according to the Wall Street Journal in Tom’s last year.

In 2009, Tom and Susanne took a leave of absence to move to Southern California where he joined the Chapman University School of Law in Orange County as the inaugural Presidential Fellow and Visiting Professor of Law. He also serves as an economic advisor to the international law firm of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.

http://www.campbell.org/meet-tom/biography