California Governor: Brown (D) Edges Further Ahead

Coming off a bare-knuckles debate this week, Democrat Jerry Brown hits his highest level of support to date in his race against Republican Meg Whitman to be the next governor of California.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the state finds Brown with 50% of the vote to Whitman’s 44%. Two percent (2%) like some other candidate in the race, and four percent (4%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The race remains Leans Democrat in the Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Gubernatorial Scorecard.

At the beginning of the month, Brown posted a similar 49% to 44% lead. Support for Brown, a longtime Democratic figure in the state who previously served as governor from 1975 to 1983, has steadily risen from 40% in late August. Backing for Whitman, who was hit in recent weeks with charges of employing an illegal immigrant as a housekeeper, has declined slightly from a high of 48% in the same period.

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The survey of 750 Likely Voters in California was conducted on October 13, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/-4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Other data from this survey can be found at www.rasmussenreports.com/California.

Incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer continues to hold the slightest of leads over Republican challenger Carly Fiorina in California’s U.S. Senate race.

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