New CA Field poll: Angelides, Westly tied, with 26% of voters undecided

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: 2 Run Hard in Last Lap of Gov. Race
Angelides and Westly travel the state seeking votes as a new Field Poll shows them in a statistical tie with 26% of Democrats undecided.
By Robert Salladay and Seema Mehta, Times Staff Writers
June 3, 2006

....(Phil) Angelides and his chief opponent for the Democratic nomination, Steve Westly, spent the day hopscotching across California's largest cities struggling for support — voter by voter — with four days of campaigning left before one of the most unpredictable contests in years. A new Field Poll showed the two statistically even as the Tuesday election approached, with more than one in four Democratic primary voters undecided....

***

Most campaigns revert at the end to a tense struggle over voters, but rarely is there such uncertainty. According to a new Field Poll, the percentage of undecided Democratic primary voters — 26% — is the highest in the poll's six-decade history.

Adding to the dilemma for voters is the candidates' similarity. They hold elective state jobs; Angelides is the treasurer and Westly the controller. Both are longtime Democratic Party activists. They share similar positions on nearly every major public policy issue, but Angelides is far more definitive about wanting to raise taxes on the rich.

Both men contend that voters are undecided in part because they were little known before this spring. But Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll, said they also are failing to gather traction because of the barrage of negative ads, which tend to blunt an opponent's progress rather than win over converts. And, he said, there is little else on the ballot to energize the electorate.

"Neither campaign seems to have struck a chord with voters," DiCamillo said....

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dems3jun03,0,7993.story?coll=la-home-headlines