A great senator. Mark DiCamillo, director of the independent Field Poll in California, said that in close races such as these the way voters react to the Clinton scandal could be determinative. This year, as in past contests, the independent-minded voters in the Central Valley will play a major role in selecting the winners. John Braly, vice president of the California Cattlemen Association, who joined Fong for a swing through the Central Valley last week, said that in six years Boxer has never met with his group or other local farm groups. A Field Poll released yesterday shows Lungren cutting Davis's 12-point lead in late August to 6 points.
Pollsters think both races are likely to be decided by a few percentage points in either direction.
Lungren needs to offer a positive grand vision for California combined with a comparative analysis that pushes Davis to the left. Gubernatorial Race When Lungren and three Democrats running for governor debated in May, the undisputed winner was the lone Republican whose poise and sunny outlook suggested a new Ronald Reagan in the making. Since then, Lungren has perspired during other TV encounters and failed to articulate a clear message while Davis, though not an inspiring orator, has steadily hammered his experience theme. The only thing they've done is focus on crime, and they haven't defined what it means to be for Dan Lungren for governor. The two men present strikingly different agendas and both have begun feverishly assaulting each other's records in an unrelenting blitz of commercials.