Brown leads Whitman 49%-44% in poll

Whitman has given a record $119 million to her campaign but is losing popularity. Brown leads among women and Latinos; but younger voters are only narrowly in his corner. Boxer led 44% to 35% when voters were asked who best understood them. Fiorina's biggest headwind may be her opposition to President Obama. (Lucy Nicholson, Reuters; Robert Gauthier, Los Angeles Times; Justin Sullivan, Getty Images; Justin Sullivan; Pool Photo)

Boxer leads Fiorina 51%-43% in Senate race, survey finds. Both Republicans are hampered by voters' negative impressions of them, poll says.

By Cathleen Decker,
Los Angeles Times
4:28 PM PDT, September 25, 2010

Democrat Jerry Brown has moved into a narrow lead over Republican Meg Whitman in their fractious contest for governor, while his party colleague Barbara Boxer has opened a wider margin over GOP nominee Carly Fiorina in the race for U.S. Senate, a new Los Angeles Times/USC poll has found.

The Democratic candidates were benefiting from their party's dominance in California and the continued popularity here of President Obama, who has retained most of his strength in the state even as he has weakened in other parts of the country. Support for Obama may play a key role in the Senate contest, one of a handful nationally that could determine which party wins control of the chamber.

At the same time, the survey showed, Republicans Whitman and Fiorina have yet to convince crucial groups of voters that their businesswoman backgrounds will translate into government success.

Brown, the former governor and current attorney general, held a 49%-44% advantage among likely voters over Whitman, the billionaire former chief executive at EBay.

(More here.)