Round 2 of the Field Poll's numbers are in, and it's Barbara Boxer over Carly Fiorina by 8 points in the U.S. Senate race.
From the Chronicle's Carolyn Lochhead: "With just four days to go in the campaign, the widely watched poll shows Boxer leading Fiorina 49 to 41 percent. Another 4 percent of likely voters favor other candidates, and 6 percent are undecided."
"It tracks with a half-dozen other new surveys that show Boxer in the lead by three to nine points. A Rasmussen poll Thursday showed Boxer up by three percentage points, while the rest show larger spreads. That means Fiorina, 56, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO who is making her first run for public office, has a chance to pull off an upset but faces a powerful headwind."
Speaking of Fiorina, the former HP chief is back on the campaign trail after a medical checkup sidelined her for 48 hours in the final days of the campaign. The Mercury News' Mike Zapler has the story.
"Declaring that she feels "fantastic" after being hospitalized this week for an infection, Republican Carly Fiorina said Thursday that she plans no change in her campaign message despite polls showing her trailing three-term Sen. Barbara Boxer in the final days of the race...."
"Dressed in a royal purple suit and high heels and appearing energetic and in good spirits, Fiorina held forth about her rise from secretary to CEO before pivoting to criticisms of Boxer she has leveled throughout the campaign."
Meanwhile, both contenders in the race for state treasurer, incumbent Democrat Bill Lockyer and GOP Challenger Mimi Walters, have some questionable campaign spending in their portfolios.
From the LA Times' Shane Goldmacher: "Incumbent Treasurer Bill Lockyer, a Democrat, has spent campaign funds on a variety of items related loosely if at all to his reelection bid. His expenditures include $1.2 million to help his wife win election as a county supervisor in the Bay Area, $16,000 in babysitting bills and a weekend trip with his family to the resort at Disneyland."
"His GOP challenger, state Sen. Mimi Walters of Laguna
Niguel, has voted on numerous bills that could affect
her husband's business interests. David Walters is
the president and largest shareholder of a medical
services firm whose subsidiary was paid more than $34 million in the last four fiscal years by the state's
prison system.
The story that keeps on giving in this campaign season is Meg Whitman's housekeeper. The latest: Whitman wants to deport her. The Times' Seema Mehta and Maeve Reston have the story.
"Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman has reignited
a controversy that roiled her campaign for weeks, saying
the undocumented housekeeper she employed for nine
years should be deported."
"The comment, her toughest yet on the matter, came
in an interview with Fox News' Greta Van Susteren,
who asked Whitman on Wednesday whether the former housekeeper,
Nicandra Diaz Santillan, should be deported. "Well,
the answer is: It breaks my heart, but she should be deported, because
she forged documents and she lied about her immigration
status," Whitman said."
One of the hottest races in the state is the fight between incumbent Fresno Congressman Jim Costa, a Democrat, and his Hanford Republican rival, Andy Vidak. The Fresno Bee's John Ellis takes a look at the outside money that's popping up.
"Outside groups such as Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies and the Center for Individual Freedom have pounded Rep. Jim Costa with a relentless barrage of negative ads as he seeks re-election to Congress...."
"It's hard to learn a whole lot about these groups, such as who fills their healthy campaign bank accounts. But curious voters can at least check out Web sites for the Federal Election Commission or the Center For Responsive Politics to learn a little something about them. The same can't be said of a local organization known as Water for All. Like the deep-pocketed, Washington D.C.-area based Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies and the Center for Individual Freedom, Water for All has gone after Costa as he tries to stave off a tough challenge from Republican Andy Vidak of Hanford."
All eyes are on the campaigns, but they aren't the only game in town: The California Air Resources Board is poised today to unveil its long-awaited regulations governing the system by which emission credits are bought, sold and traded -- the underpinning of the state's greenhouse gas law. The Bee's Rick Daysog tells the tale.
"While details of the regulations aren't yet available, ARB officials have already indicated that they plan to take a pro-business approach. They will initially give companies pollution allowances for free, rather than selling them at auction."
"...The cap-and-trade program essentially places a cap on the amount of carbon emitted by the state's 500 largest polluters. Companies that pollute less then their limit – to be set by the state – can sell their unused allowances to companies that pollute heavily, creating market incentives for the companies to reduce emissions voluntarily."
And finally, from our "Lost Boys" file, we learn that male drivers don't like to ask for directions when they get lost, which is frequently. It's a guy thing.
"The old stereotype might be true: Men really don't like to ask for directions and are willing to circle around aimlessly forever, or at least longer than women."
"The average male drives an extra 276 miles every year as a result of being lost -- the equivalent to a journey from Cincinnati to Nashville -- compared to 256 miles for women, according to a study by British car insurance company Sheila's Wheels."
"More than one out of four men -- 26 percent -- wait at least half an hour before asking for directions, with a stubborn 12 percent refusing to ask a stranger for help at all.
No wonder they rack up all those extra miles."
So whatever happened to GPS?