He Likes Phil, She Likes Steve
The new poll from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California is out, showing a new, but slight, lead in the Democratic gubernatorial race for self-proclaimed "underdog" Phil Angelides over challenger Steve Westly.
But what seems even more interesting is how different men and women are seeing the candidates, and how women may ultimately hold the cards.
First, the overall headline: 35% of Democrats support Angelides, 32% support Westly. By the way, that's a 15 point improvement for Phil Angelides since last month's PPIC poll. Westly's numbers went up by 6 points. Both men, by the way, were tied with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the poll's theoretical November matchup.
But back to the Democrats, the PPIC poll found a gender split in the race: men favor Angelides by a pretty wide margin (43% vs. 29% for Westly), while women give a slight edge to Westly (35% vs. 28% for Angelides).
Sadly, we don't know why. However, what we do know is that more women-- 37% of those surveyed-- say they're undecided in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, compared to 28% of men.
And now the kicker, courtesy of PPIC pollster Mark Baldassare.
"Since women outnumber men in the Democratic electorate," he said, "undecided women will be pivotal in determining the winner in this primary election."
The entire poll is here.
