tracking poll<\/a> from the California VOTER Index. The 1,200-sample tracking survey was conducted May 14-16 \u2013 after the May 14 statewide television\/social media debate \u2013 by Evitarus Research, the only Black-and Latina-led full-service public opinion research firm in California.<\/p>\nToday\u2019s topline survey results:<\/p>\n
Steve Hilton (R) \u2013 22%
\nXavier Becerra (D) \u2013 21%
\nTom Steyer (D) \u2013 15%
\nChad Bianco (R) -10%
\nKatie Porter (D) \u2013 7%
\nMatt Mahan (D) \u2013 4%
\nAntonio Villaraigosa (D) \u2013 1%
\nTony Thurmond (D) \u2013 1%
\nBetty Yee (D) \u2013 <1% suspended campaign
\nEric Swalwell (D) \u2013 <1% withdrew from race<\/p>\n
Support for Mahan \u2013 who raised and spent more than any other candidate besides billionaire Steyer\u2019s self-funded campaign \u2013 in today\u2019s poll results was cut in half from a week ago.<\/p>\n
San Jose Inside reached out to the Mahan campaign, but the campaign had released no statement on the poll as of 11pm Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks said 37% of likely voters said they had already voted. State officials expected that 90% of California voters \u2013 Democrats, Republicans and Independents \u2013 to vote by mail before that official June 2 primary election ballot count.<\/p>\n
Hicks called today\u2019s poll \u201c the fifth and final edition\u201d of his party\u2019s independent polling effort that began two months ago in an effort to narrow the field and avoid a GOP 1-2 finish.<\/p>\n
That prospect now seems unlikely, with Republican Hilton and Democrats Becerra and Steyer separating from the pack, and the percent of undecided voters dropping below 18%.<\/p>\n
Hicks also said today\u2019s results show that Trump-backed Hilton now has more than double the support for fellow Republican Bianco. Hilton, said Hicks, has consolidated 57% of the Republican vote \u2013 a 9-point gain from the May 4 California Index.<\/p>\n
Hick also said that Becerra maintains the broadest coalition of any candidate for governor with 35% of Democrats \u2013 a 6-point increase from May 4 \u2013 and 19% of Independents. Democrat voters in California match the number of Republicans and Independents combined.<\/p>\n
He added a note of caution: \u201cWith two weeks to go, the race is far from over \u2013 especially given the many twists and turns we\u2019ve already seen. \u2026Yet, we are clearly in a different place than we were two months ago. Some candidates are surging. Others are falling behind. And it is clear from our survey results that voters are paying attention to both.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becerra on Tuesday told reporters at a Los Angeles campaign event that he believes he has climbed in the polls because voters are now paying attention to the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re really looking closely at who\u2019s out there, and I think I\u2019ve been one of the beneficiaries of folks looking for a place that they can feel comfortable, where they can trust,\u201d said the former congressman and state attorney general. \u201cI think more and more as people look at the candidates, they\u2019re going to start to crystallize behind somebody who won\u2019t need training wheels, as I say, when they get into the governor\u2019s office and can hit the ground running, day one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hilton said the numbers reflect the momentum and energy he has seen campaigning around the state as well as his campaign\u2019s internal polling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m obviously happy to see I\u2019m at the top,\u201d Hilton told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Three decades of journalism experience, as a writer and editor with Gannett, Knight-Ridder and Lee newspapers, as a business journal editor and publisher and as a weekly newspaper editor in Scotts Valley and Gilroy; with the Weeklys group since 2017. Recipient of several first-place writing and editing awards, California News Publishers Association.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra pulled away from the crowded field as the California governor\u2019s race…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[133026,7,134933,28687,1525,106986,146,46161,4421,18562,15180,88,90,89,17382,25299,3707],"class_list":["post-324202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-anthony-villagairosa","tag-california","tag-california-index","tag-chad-bianco","tag-democratic-party","tag-june-2-primary","tag-katie-porter","tag-mail-ballots","tag-matt-mahan","tag-polls","tag-republican-party","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-steve-hilton","tag-tom-steyer","tag-xavier-becerra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}