It was easy to overlook last week’s PPIC poll of the California governor’s race. The survey came out right about the same time Nicky Santillan and Gloria Allred held their first press conference (doesn’t that seem like ages ago?).
And it coincided with a conflicting CNN/Time magazine poll (distinctly different numbers — PPIC having Democrat Jerry Brown up by 1; CNN/Time giving him a 13-point advantage) that made the contentious race seem all the more confusing.
But deep inside the PPIC poll (that’s PPIC, as in the San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California) are two findings that should concern Republican Meg Whitman’s campaign.
Click here, scroll down to page 9, and take a gander at the results under “candidate qualities”.
PPIC asked:
“People have different ideas about the qualifications they want when they vote for candidates for statewide office, such as governor or U.S. senator. Which of these is most important to you . . .”
The results: “experience in elected office” and ”experience in running a business” broke even (44 %-43%, respectively) with Democrats supporting the former and Republicans the latter. No surprise there.
Here’s what should concern Team Whitman: independents went with “elected office” by a 46-39% margin. And these are the same independents who give low grades to Sacramento in general and lawmakers in particular.
