Another new survey of California, this time from Public Policy Polling (D), shows former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina suddenly shooting to the top of the Republican primary for Senate.
The numbers: Fiorina 41%, former Rep. Tom Campbell 21%, and state Rep. Chuck DeVore 16%. The survey of likely GOP primary voters has a ±4.8% margin of error. The TPM Poll Average gives Fiorina a sudden lead with 29.1%, Campbell 27.0%, and DeVore 15.9%, after Campbell had led in polling for this primary all year.
PPP also has former eBay CEO Meg Whitman posting a very strong lead in the GOP gubernatorial primary over state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner: Whitman 51%, Poizner 26%. The TPM Poll Average gives Whitman a lead of 42.8%-31.0%.
It should of course be noted that Fiorina has recently had a huge advantage in TV advertising — she is mounting a significant statewide television buy for the past three weeks, while Campbell has had to cancel his TV advertising in the last week. The primary will be held on June 8.
There is no prior PPP survey of California for these two races, but it should be noted that these numbers are very similar to yesterday’s results from SurveyUSA.
PPP communications director Tom Jensen writes: “It’s hard to build name recognition in a state as big and expensive as California, and Fiorina is the only one of the Senate candidates who’s known to more than half of Republican primary voters.”
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
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