Low Turn-Out = GraYouT ... I Like It!!!
DUMP DAVI$ & the Den of Socialists
GO SIMON
This poll is nearly identical to they way things are now. All the private polls have Simon a head of Davis by 4-9 points, but Field is coming in with Davis ahead by 7. Note the date too. This Field Poll was also taken in July.
The San Francisco Examiner
July 20, 1994, Wednesday; Fourth Edition
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A-6
LENGTH: 600 words
HEADLINE: Brown maintains lead over Wilson ;
But new poll shows support for Demo gubernatorial candidate has slipped to 44%
SOURCE: OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
BYLINE: TUPPER HULL
DATELINE: SACRAMENTO
BODY:
Although her lead over Gov. Wilson has slipped, Kathleen Brown and her campaign reacted happily to news she is leading the Republican incumbent by a 5-point margin in a new statewide poll.
"We're landing punches," said Brown, the Democratic Party's nominee for governor, as she completed a two-day bus tour of the Bay Area on Tuesday. Brown and her aides had expected the poll to show her trailing Wilson for the first time since she announced her candidacy last year. "I like it when I'm ahead," she told reporters.
The Field Poll, conducted last week, shows her with the support of 44 percent of a sampling of the state's electorate, compared with Wilson's 39 percent.
It was conducted while Brown was airing four separate television ads attacking Wilson's record.
Wilson spokesman Dan Schnur countered that the poll was good news for the governor. He noted that Field polls had found Brown ahead of Wilson by 8 percentage points just two months ago and Brown leading by 12 points in April.
"In the last two weeks, Kathleen Brown has thrown the political sink at us, and it's barely made a scratch," said Schnur.
"They went out and tried to buy themselves a poll, and they didn't even do that right," he said.
The latest Field survey also found a growing number of Californians unhappy with the job Wilson is doing as governor. Of the more than 600 people surveyed, 41 percent said they believed Wilson was doing a poor or very job, compared with 35 percent who gave him the same grade in May.
Another 32 percent said Wilson was doing a fair job (33 percent ranked his job performance as fair in May), and 25 percent said he was doing a good or excellent job (28 percent gave him a good or excellent rating in May).
Recent private polls, including polls conducted by Brown's own campaign, have found the first-term state treasurer trailing Wilson by up to 9 points. It was largely because of those polls that Brown's aides predicted the prestigious Field Poll also would show her behind.
But John Whitehurst, Brown's chief spokesman, said he believed Brown had moved ahead in the hard-fought race largely because of the negative television ads she was running throughout the state.
"It shows how weak he is," Whitehurst said. "One week of television ads, and his numbers collapsed."
Tuesday's poll followed by one day appearances by both gubernatorial candidates at the California Broadcasters' Association convention in Monterey, during which they exchanged strongly worded attacks.
The appearances, the first time the two candidates have appeared together since they won their parties' primary elections, set the tone for what many political observers believe will be a close and bitter race up to the Nov. 8 vote.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (AP / RICH PEDRONCELLI)
Caption 1, Kathleen Brown admires Veronica Garcia's finger painting at George Moscone elementary in The City on Tuesday.
LOAD-DATE: July 22, 1994