By Jim Tankersley
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A cold gray veil has settled over California, dumping rain on the beaches and snow in the Sierras and cutting visibility; descending into the Oakland airport yesterday, the Golden Gate Bridge lay hidden beneath a low cloud ceiling before bursting into view moments before landing.
More Top Picks Best Kerosene Space Heaters
We offer this weather report as a quick metaphor for the Republican presidential race here, which is looking quite stormy with a week and a half to go before the Feb. 5 primary.
Two highly respected in-state polls this week show a cloudy and volatile struggle for the GOP lead in the Land of Reagan. A Field Poll released Wednesday had Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) leading with 22 percent of the vote, followed closely by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at 18 percent (which is within the poll’s margin of error). Late last night, the Public Policy Institute of California released a poll showing McCain up a dozen points on Romney, 29 percent to 17 percent.
Note that in both cases, the leading candidate still claims less than a third of the vote. (That’s a contrast to the Democratic side; both Field and the PPIC have Hillary Clinton at about 40 percent and beating Barack Obama by double-digits.) In the Field poll, in one five Republicans still hadn’t decided on a candidate. In the PPIC survey, nearly half said they weren’t satisfied with their crop of candidates.
Both polls show Rudy Giuliani’s California fortunes sinking fast. The former New York City mayor has dropped to about 10 percent of support – putting him in the same ballpark as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) – after leading the pack with a quarter of the vote in December polls.
Giuliani’s drop coincides with McCain’s climb, and it mirrors national polls. That suggests the numbers could change again, perhaps dramatically, depending on the results from Florida’s primary next week.
The state weather forecast looks a little more static: rain, well into next week.