Public Opinion Strategies is a nationally-recognized polling firm that specializes in political opinion research.  I have known their California point-man, Steve Kinney, for many years.  We have worked together on many campaigns, and I highly value his work, and his opinion.  So when I heard that POS had just completed a survey that included questions on race for State Controller, I gave him a call right away.  You see, there could not be a more stark contrast between two candidates than we have with Republican Tony Strickland (pictured to the left)  and Democrat John Chiang (pictured below).  The office of the Controller has a lot of important responsibilities, and based on the gerrymander of the four Board of Equalization districts (two are solid Dem, two are GOP), whomever is the occupant of the Controller’s office will be the deciding vote on the five-member Board of Equalization, which also has a wide range of important responsibilities.
 
So, on to the details:  POS conducted this survey from the 27th to the 30th of Augustm and the results show that the race is tied at 27%.  This means that a huge amount of the electorate remains undecided in this race.  Strickland actually has a 10 point lead among early absentee voters.

Given that Chiang already represents a quarter of the state as a member of the State Board of Equalization, I would start to worry if I were him.  The survey was of 1000 likely voters and has a margin of error of +/- 3%.

"Coming into the final stretch, Strickland is in a very good position to win this race," pollster Steve Kinney told me on the phone today.  He went on to say, "Having the numbers be this close at this time in this race when Democrats statewide have a voter registration advantage is a very positive sign for Tony."

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 12th, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.