Poll: Insurance Commissioner Race Tilts Republican
Thirty-seven percent of California residents who likely will vote in the Nov. 7 statewide election support Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante (D) for insurance commissioner, while 46% favor his Republican opponent, Steve Poizner, according to a Field Poll released Thursday, the Sacramento Bee reports. The poll focused on six state election races (Sanders, Sacramento Bee, 11/3).
The Field Poll surveyed 795 likely voters between Oct. 23 and 30. All of the findings have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
The poll found that among likely voters:
- 59% of Democrats will likely vote for Bustamante; and
- 75% of Republicans will likely vote for Poizner (Gledhill, San Francisco Chronicle, 11/3).
Bustamante said he wants to explore expanding the insurance commissioner's control over health care if he is elected, while Poizner said he would work to educate an estimated two million qualified Californians about existing state health insurance programs (California Healthline, 10/10).
In the race for lieutenant governor, 44% of likely voters support John Garamendi (D) while 43% support Tom McClintock (R), according to the poll (San Francisco Chronicle, 11/3).
In a debate, McClintock said that Garamendi favors a single-payer, state-run health care system that could leave the state bankrupt (California Healthline, 10/24).
Garamendi has said that providing universal health care is the "right and moral thing to do" as premiums continue to increase in the face of high administrative costs and profits of private insurance companies (California Healthline, 10/10).