There are so many polls going on in San Diego this week I have no idea where to start.
First the Fletcher “poll” that is mentioned earlier in this blog. I say “poll” like that because I just got off the phone with a pollster friend and he pretty much confirmed what I thought: this isn’t a ‘real’ poll. It all but pushes a vote for Fletcher, and does not address his problems except the weakest way possible. To quote the pollster, “this ‘poll’ is pretty much designed to show Fletcher with a huge lead so that he can scare other Democrats out of the race.”
Second, another Fletcher poll, but this time one focused on his negatives. No idea who is doing this one (maybe Fletcher had two polls?). Full of the kind of things that were used against Fletcher last time around (lack of voting, voting for bad things, etc…) plus some new questions on Fletcher’s behavior.
Third, a large ‘head to head’ poll, basically every Democrat or Republican in different combinations, several dozen questions it sounded like. Tested DeMaio, Fletcher, Faulconer, Roberts, Gloria, Saldana, Emerald and several others. No real negatives here, just sort of who would win.
So what am I hearing? The Republican field hasn’t set yet. Could be any of the names above. On the Democrat side Fletcher has been working to lock the field down but the liberal wing of the Democrat Party has some serious concerns about him. His major supporters at this point are Assemblywoman Gonzalez and the fire union. Like I wrote before, there are some issues within the Labor Council, and some tension between Gonzalez and new labor leader Richard Barrera. Specifically, Fletcher and Gonzalez have been saying labor is locked up. Barrera is telling others that it is not. I kind of think this is a bit of a test as to whether Gonzales still runs the Labor Council with Barrera as her stand in.