00:00The results of the California Post statewide poll are in, and they're very interesting.
00:05Democrat Javier Becerra still leads the race for governor over Republican Steve Hilton.
00:09Becerra has 55% to Hilton's 39%. That's a 16-point gap. However, that gap is smaller than it has
00:17been in previous polls, and the RealClearPolitics average was previously 23%, so Hilton is making
00:23up some ground. There are two reasons that he's doing so. One is that California voters are
00:28generally discontented with the state of affairs in the Golden State. Only 30% believe that the state
00:34is on the right track, and 56% believe that California is on the wrong track. 44% of voters
00:40in this poll said that they had considered leaving California. The other thing driving Hilton's
00:45growing success is the fact that people seem to like him, or they like him better than they like
00:50the Republican Party. Hilton has a 39% approval rating versus a 42.5% disapproval rating. That
00:56is underwater, but it's roughly within the margin of error, almost even. And if you compare it to
01:01the approval ratings of the Republican Party, it's much better. California voters do not like
01:05Republicans. Only 37% say they have a positive view of the Republican Party, and 59% disapprove of
01:11the Republican Party. So Steve Hilton is much more popular than his party. There are some other
01:16interesting results in this poll. Proposition 39, the voter ID ballot initiative, is too close to call,
01:23with 46% of voters saying they favor it, and 48% saying they oppose it. That does suggest that
01:29Prop 39 could pass with a determined effort to push it across the finish line. Proposition 40,
01:34the so-called billionaire tax, is losing badly, and its support does seem to have collapsed. Only 35%
01:40of California voters say they plan to vote for it, and 53%, more than a majority, oppose the
01:45billionaire tax. It may be that as voters have learned more about the tax, especially learning how many
01:51entrepreneurs are leaving the state for fear of the tax, that people are changing their minds
01:55and voting no on this key initiative for the left.
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