San Francisco Chronicle: Whitman takes early lead over Brown

[marmar]

Whitman takes early lead over Brown
Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

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Republican Meg Whitman's months-long advertising campaign is buying the billionaire, first-time candidate a precious political commodity: name recognition - and a virtual tie with Democrat Jerry Brown, a veteran of 40 years in politics, according to a Field Poll released today on California's gubernatorial race.

Whitman, the former eBay CEO who has poured $39 million into her campaign, also continued to thrash her rival in the GOP primary, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. Among likely Republican primary voters, 63 percent preferred Whitman to 14 percent for Poizner.

Against Brown, the state attorney general and former governor, Whitman led 46 to 43 percent. The margin of error in the survey of 748 likely general election voters, taken March 9-15, was 3.7 percentage points.

The early snapshot of the race not only is bad news for Poizner but analysts said it could be ominous for Brown, who announced his candidacy March 2. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/17/MN6I1CGM0F.DTL