The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) recently
released a voter survey measuring voter attitudes in California on various
issues, candidates and incumbents.

In the GOP Primary race for governor, former e-Bay executive
Meg Whitman continues to show a significant lead over her two GOP rivals, Tom
Campbell and Steve Poizner: Whiteman 32%, Campbell 19%, Poizner 8%, someone
else 4% and undecided 44%.

Attorney General Jerry Brown continues to leads all three
Republican candidates, though falling short of a majority support in
hypothetical November election matchups.

Early polls are interesting, but are not always accurate
indicators as to who will win come election time.  Ask supporters of Hillary Clinton and Richard Riordan on
that point.

At this stage of an election cycle, it is still mostly name
ID that drive the poll numbers and with Whitman having spent some early big
bucks these past few months on radio advertising, along with receiving some
very good free publicity in the media, her lead among Republicans is not that
surprising.

Forty-four percent of the GOP voters, however, still say
they are undecided, with 41 percent of GOP likely primary voters having either
not heard of or don’t know enough to have an opinion of any of the three
candidates.

Supporters of Steve Poizner should hope that after writing
his campaign a personal check for $15 million, that he in fact lets his
campaign team start spending some of that money.

One needs to note that we no longer have an Election Day,
but an Election Month.  Over 5.8 million individuals throughout
the state have signed up to be permanent vote-by-mail voters and the county
election officials will begin mailing out those ballots on May 10, allowing those
voters to cast their vote any day thereafter until June 8.

The PPIC survey also showed that the overwhelming majority
of California voters have a very low opinion of the performance of our state
legislature: 17% approve; 70% disapprove.

With the legislature having such low approval ratings, one
would think it would be difficult to find individuals to want to run for
office.

But, that is not the case.

The California Target
Book
, which I publish, is currently showing that there are twenty-three
open assembly seats in which the incumbent is not seeking reelection due to
being termed out, is running for higher office or retiring.

As of this date, no fewer than 99 individuals have filed a
Statement of Intention to run in one of these twenty-three open assembly
seats.  And — at least on the
Democratic side — it is a very diverse group of individuals.

Not included in this total are those who have filed an SI
but have since publicly announced that they are not running.  Candidates running in safe Democratic
or safe Republican districts of the opposition party are also excluded.

Among the 99 assembly candidates, 69 are Democratic and 30
are Republican.

The reason for the larger number of Democratic candidates is
that the Target Book is listing 14 of the seats as safely Democratic.  Only three of the open seats are being
labeled safe Republican, with six districts being tagged as possible
competitive seats come November. 

Among the 69
Democrats:

47 are male

22 are female (32%)

25 are Latino (36%)

8 are African American

4 are Asian

6 are openly gay or lesbian

Among the 30
Republicans:

25 are male

5 are female (17%)

1 is Latino

2 are African American

2 are Asian

0 are openly gay or lesbian

It appears that GOP caucus looks as if it will remain a predominately
white man’s club.

Speaking of diversity, or lack of it, Target Book co-editor
Tony Quinn took a look at those who have filed to serve on the new
Redistricting Commission created by the passage of Proposition 11.

According to the state auditor’s website, 2,700 valid
applications have been received as of today (12/21).  Of these, 42% are Democratic, 40% are Republicans.  Sacramento County has the most valid
applications, Los Angeles County has the second most.  In terms of ethnicity, 82% are white (64% males, 18%
females).  Hispanics count for 8%
of applications (6% males, 2% females). Asians and African Americans count for
3 percent each.