CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / U.S. SENATE : Feinstein Clings to 6-Point Lead, Poll Says

After seven weeks of attack television commercials, a new statewide poll finds Sen. Dianne Feinstein still locked in a tight race for reelection, although she may have stopped the surging support for Republican challenger Michael Huffington.

The Democratic incumbent clung to a six-point lead over Rep. Huffington (R-Santa Barbara), virtually the same margin as the San Francisco-based Field Poll identified in May. Feinstein was favored by 45% of respondents compared to 39% for Huffington.

The survey also found voters emerging from the campaign’s most acrimonious exchange of television commercials without any signs of enthusiasm for either candidate. Feinstein’s image continued to sink while Huffington has concentrated so much on attacking his opponent that half the state’s voters said they still do not know much about him.

The upshot was that voters appeared more confused than they were in May. Support for both candidates dropped slightly from the May survey while the number of undecided voters increased five points to 16%.

“I think the public is really struggling with both of these campaigns,” said Mark DiCamillo, associate director of the Field Poll. “You have to attribute a lot of the decline in Feinstein’s image and ratings directly to Huffington’s ads. And the effect of (Feinstein’s) recent ads is just to stop the erosion, she hasn’t turned things around.”

Feinstein launched her barrage of television commercials a week before the June 7 primary when a series of polls found that Huffington had shrunk the incumbent’s lead much more dramatically than most political observers had expected.

In April, Feinstein had a 26-point edge in the Field Poll that collapsed to seven points by late May.

The new survey contacted 609 registered voters over a five-day period ending Sunday. It has an error margin of plus or minus 3.5 points.

The poll appeared to confirm that the Senate race many had expected to be an easy victory for Feinstein is now likely to be a hard-fought battle. It also proved once again the political power of Huffington’s personal fortune, which he has used to fuel a campaign that has cost about $9.5 million.

Huffington’s strategy in the last several weeks has been to respond within hours to every Feinstein commercial and, at the same time, to pay more for a heavier saturation of television airwaves than the Democrat’s original attack.

The poll suggests that the clash has resulted in a stalemate and prevented Feinstein from recovering her previous lead.

“He is still outspending us about 3 1/2 to 2, so it’s a dogfight,” Feinstein campaign manager Kam Kuwata said. “If that’s the way the campaign is run and we end up winning by six points, I’m delighted.”

But Huffington adviser Ken Khachigian said the results prove there is fertile ground for the Republican campaign. “Clearly our message has been effective in alerting California voters to the things that Dianne has done that they don’t approve of,” he said.

The most recent campaign finance statements, released last week, show that Feinstein has spent about $3 million since January, about a third of what Huffington has spent.

With three months remaining until the Nov. 8 election, the poll also seemed to indicate that plenty could still happen in the Senate race because so many voters know so little about Huffington. Both campaigns are now in a race to define the Republican candidate.

In the days ahead, Huffington’s campaign plans to focus more attention on the candidate’s vision for solving major social problems. Feinstein’s campaign hopes to offer voters a different version of the Republican candidate.

“The most important number of this poll is that nearly half of the respondents don’t have enough of a sense (about Huffington) to rate him--and that’s very dangerous for a candidate,” Kuwata said. “We are going to try to help him get known.”

Khachigian said: “I would look at it as a missionary looks upon nonbelievers. Basically it’s an opportunity to convert people to your cause. . . . We have roughly 16 weeks to fill in the blank space.”

About 29% of the poll’s respondents had a favorable opinion of Huffington while about 22% had an unfavorable opinion. Both figures are up from April, when only 11% had a favorable opinion compared to 7% unfavorable.

Meanwhile, voters’ impressions of Feinstein continued to slide. Favorable impressions of the former San Francisco mayor dropped from 55% in May to 47%, while 43% reported that they have an unfavorable opinion, up from 35% in May.

The decline has continued since January, when the Field Poll found 59% of voters had a favorable image of the senator while 28% did not.

“(Huffington) has chosen that rather to speak about what he believes in, he will bash her,” Kuwata said. “And when you spend $10 million to tell people that someone is bad, some of it sticks.”