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It’s never too early to speculate on the race for California governor. Fresh of the 2016 presidential election, The Field Poll released a poll of likely contenders for the 2018 race. The early front-runner is Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. That is not surprising. What may be is that Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin ranks third.
Being this early, “undecided” leads with a quarter of the 600 registered voters sampled. Newsom leads among those who are decided, with 23, followed by San Diego Mayor Kevin Falconer at 16. Swearengin is third at 11. The latter two are the only Republicans named in the poll.
| Name | Total |
| Gavin Newsom (D) | 23% |
| Kevin Falconer (R) | 16 |
| Ashley Swearengin (R) | 11 |
| Eric Garcetti (D) | 7 |
| Antonio Villaraigosa (D) | 6 |
| Tom Steyer (D) | 5 |
| Alex Padilla (D) | 4 |
| John Chiang (D) | 2 |
| Steve Westley (D) | 1 |
| Undecided | 25 |
Newsom, the former mayor of San Francisco, has long been regarded as the heir apparent to Gov. Jerry Brown, who will termed out after 2018. He is the pick over fellow Democrats Eric Garcetti (Los Angeles mayor), Antonio Villaraigosa (former Los Angeles mayor and state legislator), Tom Steyer (billionaire Bay Area political activist), Alex Padilla (California Secretary of State), John Chiang (California Treasurer) and Steve Westley (former California Controller).
The Field Poll notes that when party affiliations are omitted from the question, Newsom remains in the lead by 12 points over second place Garcetti (21-9%), but Falconer drops to 6% and Swearengin finished 8th of 9 with 3%.
UC Berkeley also helped conduct the survey.
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Field Poll
E-mail David Taub
Courtesy photo Roe Borunda/ROETOGRAPHY
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