Even with Election Day fast approaching, 4 out of 10 California voters don’t know that incumbent Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown is seeking re-election.
As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, according to a survey last week by polling firm Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz and Associates 42 percent of likely voters didn't know Brown was running for a fourth term, and only about 1 in 5 knew his GOP challenger is banker and first-time candidate Neel Kashkari.
“Isn’t that astonishing?” the firm’s David Metz told the Chronicle.
“It’s difficult to imagine a similar lack of awareness at the end of the 2010 contest between Gov. Brown and Meg Whitman,” he continued. “Or even in the 2006 election between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Phil Angelides, where Schwarzenegger led by a wide margin comparable to Brown’s lead today.”
It’s nothing to spook Brown, however, who holds a solid 20-point lead over Kashkari and is making more headlines for his lack of campaign spending than the campaign itself -- a likely contributor to so many voters’ unawareness. He has instead paid for and appeared in ads pushing for Proposition 1 to secure a $7.5 billion water bond and Proposition 2 to stabilize the rainy day budget.
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