Of all the Democrats running this year, I figured Jerry Brown had some of the biggest advantages. He’s a Democrat in California, where 44.4 percent of the state’s voters are registered Democrats, and only 31.4 percent are Republicans. He has no real primary, as both top rivals, Gavin Newsom and Antonio Villaraigosa, dropped out early, and a lot of California Democrats are eager to win their state’s governorship back. Finally, while we may laugh at him as “Governor Moonbeam” or his use of a 1-800 number in his 1992 presidential campaign, he’s the definition of a known quantity to California voters, having served as secretary of state, two terms as governor, state Democratic party chairman, mayor of Oakland, and state attorney general.
And yet, Rasmussen puts him in a tie with Meg Whitman.
Brown continues to maintain a double-digit lead – 46% to 34% – over the other leading Republican in the contest, state insurance commissioner Steve Poizner; no word on whether the FBI has been contacted about this yet.