Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman (R) has pulled into a tie with state Attorney General Jerry Brown (D) in a hypothetical general election match-up for California governor, according to a new poll by Rasmussen Reports conducted Nov. 17.

Whitman and Brown each pull 41 percent of support among likely voters in the Democratic leaning state, the poll found. Three percent would support some other candidate and 14 percent are unsure. The margin of error was 4.5 percent.

Whitman trailed Brown 35 percent to 44 percent in the last Rasmussen poll.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley continues to dominate the Democratic primary race for the Senate seat held by Edward M. Kennedy until his death Aug. 25. She leads in nearly every category of voter, according to a Suffolk University/7 News poll of 600 registered voters conducted Nov. 4-8.

Coakley, the only statewide officeholder in the field of four candidates, has a plurality among male and female voters as well as across every region of the state. She also leads in every age group except the youngest (18- to 34-year-olds) and the oldest (75-plus), where she is tied with Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca. The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 4 percent.

Overall, the survey shows Coakley taking 44 percent of the primary vote, with Pagliuca second at 17 percent. They are followed by Rep. Michael E. Capuano at 16 percent and Alan Khazei, co-founder of the community service program City Year, at 3 percent.

Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman is outpacing the other GOP candidates for the nod to run for California governor, says a new poll conducted Oct. 26-28.

According to the poll by Capitol Weekly/Probolsky Research Whitman leads former Rep. Tom Campbell 34.3 percent to 12.5 percent, with Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner a distant third at 5.5 percent.

About 7 percent of the 750 respondents said they preferred someone else and 35 percent were undecided.

On the Democratic side, the poll tested only Attorney General Jerry Brown and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who has dropped out. Brown was ahead, as he was in other polls, 43 percent to 18 percent.

Attorney General Martha Coakley continues to look strong against both her fellow Democratic candidates and against the likely Republican nominee in the Massachusetts Senate special election, according to a Western New England College Polling Institute survey conducted Oct. 18-22.

With just over a month to go before the Dec. 8 primary, Coakley leads the Democratic field with 37 percent among registered voters. In a bit of a surprise, the survey found investor and Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca running neck-and-neck with six-term U.S. Rep. Michael E. Capuano for second place. Pagliuca is at 14 percent and Capuano at 13 percent.

Alan Khazei, the co-founder of community service program City Year, trails at 4 percent of the vote. Twenty-six percent of voters were still undecided.

There’s no clear leader in the California Republican primary for governor and nearly half of registered GOP voters are unsure about whom they support, according to a Field Poll conducted Sept. 18 to Oct 5.

Former Ebay CEO Meg Whitman leads in a three-way match-up with 22 percent of the vote, former five-term Rep. Tom Campbell earns 20 percent and state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner comes in at 9 percent. Another 49 percent of Republicans said they were undecided. The margin of error was 4.5 percent.

All three remain unknown to the majority of California voters - 68 percent have no opinion of Whitman, 61 percent no opinion of Poizner and 59 percent no opinion of Campbell.

The prospective Democratic candidates are much better known to the electorate - approximately 60 percent of voters had an opinion of Attorney General Jerry Brown or San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown is outpolling his likely opponents for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination and for the 2010 general election, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey taken Sept. 24.

Brown, who served two terms as governor in the 1970s, has a higher favorability rating than San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who also is seeking the Democratic nomination, 53 percent to 45 percent.

And in a hypothetical general election race, Brown leads former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, a Republican candidate, 44 percent to 35 percent, and two other candidates now seeking the Republican nomination, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner 45 percent to 32 percent, and former U.S. Rep. Tom Campbell 44 percent to 34 percent, according to Rasmussen.

A Research 2000/Daily Kos poll of 600 likely voters conducted Aug. 9-12 shows Republican Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay, and Democrat Jerry Brown, the current state attorney general and a former governor, leading their respective fields for the open 2010 governor's race in California.

In a hypothetical general election matchup between the two, Brown bested Whitman 42 percent to 36 percent, with 22 percent undecided.

Brown also led San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in a hypothetical Democratic primary matchup, 29 percent to 20 percent -- but a whopping 51 percent said they were undecided.

On the Republican side, Whitman led former Rep. Tom Campbell and state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner in the GOP primary: 24 percent for Whitman, 19 percent for Campbell, 9 percent for Poizner and 48 percent undecided.

Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is term-limited in 2011. CQ Politics rates the governor's race Leans Democratic.

Republican Gov. Charlie Crist's high statewide name recognition is paying off, with Crist holding strong leads in both the primary and general elections at this early stage in the race, according to a Mason-Dixon Polling & Research survey conducted June 24-26.

The survey found that only 3 percent of voters of all parties failed to recognize Crist and less than 1 percent of likely Republican voters responded that they did not recognize Crist. By comparison, 47 percent of voters of all parties and 48 percent of likely GOP voters surveyed did not recognize Crist's major challenger for the GOP nomination, former state House speaker Marco Rubio.

Although Republicans yet have to choose who their governor and senate candidates will be, Republican contenders hold early leads in general election match-ups for the state's open-seat races for governor and for U.S. Senate, according to two new polls from Rasmussen Reports.

In a poll of the governor's race, Republican state Attorney General Bill McCollum leads Democrat state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink 42 percent to 34 percent among 500 likely voters surveyed June 22. An additional 18 percent of voters were undecided and 7 percent indicated a preference for "some other candidate." The margin of error was 4.5 points.

Six weeks out from the June 2 primary for New Jersey governor, polls show Republican Chris Christie continuing to top his primary challengers as well as sitting Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine.

A poll of registered voters conducted April 14-20 by Quinnipiac University showed Christie, a former U.S. Attorney, besting his closest primary competitor by 9 percentage points. Christie led former Bogota, N.J. mayor Steven M. Lonegan 46 percent to 37 percent. State assemblyman Rick Merkt placed third among likely Republican voters with 2 percent of support.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein would be the clear favorite in a Democratic primary for governor in 2010 if she chooses to make the run according to a Field poll conducted Feb. 20 - March 1.

Attorney General Jerry Brown and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa tie for second at 16 percent and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom registers 10 percent. All others are in single digits.

Should Feinstein not run, Brown would be out front by 26 percent followed by Villaraigosa at 22 percent, Newsom at 16 percent and Lt. Gov. John Garamendi at 8 percent.

SurveyUSA tested the appeal of a slate of potential or announced candidates for California's governorship in 2010 and didn't find any of them firing up voters with enthusiasm, but the poll did not include two big names, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

The survey asked voters to rate seven people on a scale of one to 10 with "10" meaning the individual had the "highest qualifications" and "1" signifying "completely unqualified."

The only name to garner a double-digit response in the "10" category was Attorney General and former Governor Jerry Brown who also had the highest favorability rating at 31 percent. However, only 10 percent graded Brown as a "10" compared to 20 percent who considered him completely unqualified, and those that viewed him unfavorably, at 34 percent, exceeded his favorable numbers.