Question: I am going to read some possible match-ups between the leading Democratic and Republican candidates for Governor in this year’s November general election. For each pairing, please tell me which candidate you would vote for if the election for Governor were being held today. (PAIRS READ IN RANDOM ORDER) If these were the candidates for Governor in the November general election, for whom would you vote if the election were being held today?

Schwarzenegger: 44%
Westly: 42%
Other: 3%
Undecided: 11%

Schwarzenegger: 46%
Angelides: 39%
Other: 4%
Undecided: 11%


About this Poll
The findings in this report are based on a random sample survey of California likely voters. Interviewing was conducted by telephone in English and Spanish between the period May 23-31, 2006. In the main survey, total of 1,545 California adults were reached and screened, of whom 702 reported being likely to vote in the November general election, and 351 said they were likely to vote in the Democratic primary.

Telephone households were sampled using a random digit dial methodology, which randomly selects operating landline telephone exchanges within all area codes serving California households in proportion to population. Within each exchange, random samples of telephone numbers were created by adding random digits to each selected telephone exchange. This method gives each phone listing an equal chance of being selected and permits access to all landline telephone numbers both listed and unlisted.

To increase the precision of the poll’s estimates in the upcoming June 6 Democratic primary, an additional 150 voters likely to vote in the Democratic primary were interviewed in a separate augmented sample, bringing the total Democratic primary likely voter sample to 501. These additional voters were randomly sampled from a statewide list of registered voters who were then screened for their likely participation in the Democratic primary.

Results from both the main sample and the augmented sample were weighted to conform to Field Poll estimates of the state’s registered voter population.

According to statistical theory, 95% of the time results from the overall sample of likely voters in the general election have a sampling error of +/- 3.8 percentage points, while results from the combined Democratic primary sample of likely voters have a sampling error of +/- 4.5 percentage points. There are other possible sources of error in any survey other than sampling variability. Different results could occur because of differences in question wording, sampling, the sequencing of questions, or through undetected omissions or errors in interviewing or data processing. Extensive efforts were made to minimize such potential errors.