California House Seat: Costa (D) 47% Vidak (R) 41%

[WI_DEM]

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released an internal poll on Tuesday that showed Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) ahead of Republican Andy Vidak by 6 points, 47 percent to 41 percent.

The committee probably would not normally release a poll showing Costa under 50 percent, but this one comes a day after SurveyUSA released a poll that showed Vidak with a 10-point lead, 52 percent to 42 percent.

Both polls were taken at the same time. But the SurveyUSA poll included 36 percent Hispanic respondents, which could turn out to be an under-representation of the district's Hispanic turnout and may explain the vast difference in the two results. Hispanics make up 67 percent of the district population.

The DCCC spent more than $150,000 on an ad on Costa's behalf that is airing in the district now. Costa won his last race with 74 percent of the vote, and President Barack Obama carried the district with 60 percent in 2008. In 2004, however, the district voted for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) by just a 3-point margin.
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/eyeon2010/2010/10/california-dccc-poll-shows-cos.html