In the race to determine California’s next governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom leads Republican John Cox by 12 points in a Public Policy Institute of California poll released Wednesday.
Interviews of 1,710 Californians conducted by the PPIC showed Lt. Gov. Newsom of San Francisco with 51 percent support and Cox, a San Diego businessman, at 39 percent. Seven percent indicated that they were undecided.
In PPIC’s July poll, Newsom led Cox 55% to 31%. Thus Cox has cut Newsom’s lead in half heading into the Nov. 6 election.
The poll’s margin of error is plus-or-minus 3.5 percent.

De León Narrows Feinstein’s Big Lead by Half

Dianne Feinstein, who is seeking her fifth full term in the U.S. Senate, leads fellow Democrat Kevin de León by 11 points (40 percent to 29 percent) among likely voters, with 8 percent undecided. The margin in this race also has narrowed. In July, Feinstein led by 22 percentage points.
Interestingly, about a quarter of likely voters said that they would not vote in this race — perhaps because there isn’t a Republican candidate. When this group is excluded, Feinstein leads de León 52 percent to 37 percent.
Feinstein is from San Francisco, and de León is a state senator from Los Angeles.

Gas Tax Repeal, Rent Control Are Trailing

In other key findings from the new PPIC poll:

— A slim majority of likely voters oppose Proposition 6, which would repeal increases in gas taxes and vehicle registration fees.  After being read the proposition title and label, 52 percent said they would vote no and 39 percent said they would vote yes. Eight percent are undecided.
“A slim majority of likely voters say they would vote no on Proposition 6 … ” said Mark Baldassare, PPIC president/CEO. “Across all of the state’s major regions, fewer than half say they would vote yes.”
— Proposition 10, which would expand local authority to enact rent control, is failing to attract strong support. Forty-eight percent of voters oppose the proposition, and 36 percent support it. Sixteen percent are undecided.
“The yes votes are falling below a majority among both homeowners and renters,” Baldassare noted.
— A majority of California likely voters favor Democratic candidates in U.S. House races, and half say this election is more important to them than past midterms.

Read the PPIC Poll

You can read the full poll results at this link.