Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina Regain Footing in California GOP Contests

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman appear to have rebounded in their respective races for the GOP senate and gubernatorial nominations in California, according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted May 21-23.

Fiorina, who a recent Public Policy Institute of California survey showed to be in a horserace with former Rep. Tom Campbell, leads in this poll by 46 percent to 23 percent with 14 percent for state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore. Two other candidates share 6 percent and 11 percent are undecided.

In the GOP race for governor, Whitman leads state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner by 54 percent to 27 percent with 6 other candidates sharing 10 percent and 9 percent undecided.

A Public Policy Polling survey conducted May 21 to 23 found similar results. It had Whitman leading Poizner 51 percent to 26 percent with 11 percent preferring someone else and 12 percent undecided, while Fiorina was in the lead in her race with 41 percent to 21 percent for Campbell and 16 percent for DeVore with 4 percent for someone else and 18 percent undecided.

"It's hard to build name recognition in a state as big and expensive as California, and Fiorina is the only one of the Senate candidates who's known to more than half of Republican primary voters," PPP said.

At one point, Whitman had led Poizner by 50 points but the PPIC poll, conducted May 9-16 had that down to 38 percent to 29 percent.

SurveyUSA, which offered the observation "the air goes out of Poizner," said the see-sawing of the race was reflected among groups such as male voters where Whitman had 51 percent in April, fell to 37 percent in early May and now has bounced back to 55 percent.

In the Senate race, Fiorina has more than doubled support among women, seniors, Hispanics and the less-educated since the last poll, SurveyUSA said.

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