Feinstein’s Lead Over Lungren Has Narrowed, Field Poll Says

Democrat Dianne Feinstein still leads Republican Dan Lungren in the race for governor next year, but Lungren has cut Feinstein’s lead in half since August, a new Field poll says.

The poll, conducted Nov. 12-23, reported that Lungren had reduced Feinstein’s lead from 9 percentage points to just 4, 46% to 42%.

The margin of error in the poll of 696 registered voters is 4 percentage points.

Feinstein, California’s senior U.S. senator, said in a television interview last week that she does not plan to announce her intentions until “around the filing time,” which could be as late as Feb. 12.

But in the new Field poll, Feinstein remains the front-runner for the Democratic nomination in the June primary and the only one of six potential Democratic contenders to lead Lungren, who has no major GOP opponents, in trial matchups of the November election.

In other potential general election matchups against Democratic hopefuls, the attorney general led Lt. Gov. Gray Davis by 4 percentage points, former White House chief of staff Leon Panetta by 5 points, state Controller Kathleen Connell by 10 points, state Sen. John Vasconcellos by 17 points and businessman Al Checchi by 19 points.

Among Democrats, only Davis and Checchi have formally entered the race for governor.

Poll director Mark DiCamillo said Lungren’s improved standing is almost entirely among Republicans moving from undecided to Lungren’s column.

The survey showed, however, that Feinstein could draw the support of 12% of Republicans in the June primary while Lungren would win just 6% of Democrats.