A couple of polls out today: Rand Paul appears to have weathered the In Kentucky's Senate race, a Courier-Journal and WHAS11 Bluegrass Poll shows Paul, a first-time candidate and son of Texas Rep. Ron Paul, with a modest lead over Democratic Attorney General Jack Conway a week after his remarks raising questions about part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The GOP Senate candidate holds a six-point lead, 51% to 45%, in the race to replace retiring Sen. Jim Bunning.
The telephone poll, conducted May 25-27 by SurveyUSA, has an error margin of 4.2 percentage points and is in line with a poll last week by the liberal Daily Kos conducted by Research 2000, which had Paul up by three points, 44%-41%
In California, a Los Angeles Times/USC poll less than two weeks ahead of the June 8 primary found that Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, now has a strong lead over former U.S. Rep. Campbell, 38% to 23%. State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore came in at 16%. A March poll had Campbell narrowly ahead.
Still, the latest poll showed that Campbell appears to have the best chance of defeating Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in November. In a Campbell-Boxer matchup, Campbell came out seven points ahead, but in a Fiorina-Boxer matchup, Boxer led by six points.
The poll offered good and bad news for Republican Meg Whitman, who is running for governor. Whitman, the former eBay CEO, leads her GOP primary opponent, Steve Poizner, a businessman and California's insurance commissioner, 53% to 29%.
The two have been fighting relentlessly in recent weeks, with Poizner disparaging Whitman's ties to Goldman Sachs and her stance on illegal immigration. Whitman has hit back with ads saying Poizner is a liberal who once supported abortion rights and supported tax increases.
The poll indicated the Whitman-Poizner battle appears to be taking a toll: Whitman, who once was running ahead of Democratic candidate Jerry Brown, now trails him 44%-38%. Brown, a former California governor and current Attorney General, has stepped up his campaign in recent weeks, hitting a number of college campuses.
The poll was conducted Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, a Democratic polling firm, and American Viewpoint, a Republican firm. The error margin was 2.6 points for the overall sample and 3.6% for partial groups.