A major step forward for Howard Dean today — he’s currently leading the polls in California!
Howard Dean has surged from the middle of the pack to join the top tier of Democratic presidential candidates in California, according to a new Field Poll that indicates growing momentum for the former Vermont governor.
The poll, released Tuesday, showed Dean is the choice of 16 percent of likely Democratic voters in California, followed by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., at 15 percent and Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., at 14 percent.
Because the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points, the three candidates are essentially tied, meaning the race for California’s haul of convention delegates in the March 2 primary is still up in the air. A third of respondents said they are undecided.
But the showing is still a significant achievement for Dean, who ranked fourth among the nine presidential candidates in an April Field Poll of registered Democrats, with just 7 percent.
[…]
Lieberman, the leader in the April poll, saw his support drop from 22 percent three months ago. And Gephardt, who was third behind Lieberman and Kerry with 12 percent in April, is now a distant fourth with 7 percent. The latest poll was of 1,040 registered voters, with 335 likely Democratic voters asked about the party’s candidates.
The poll also reflected President Bush’s drop in approval ratings in California. According to the poll, he now would narrowly lose a matchup in California with whoever wins the Democratic nomination – 40 percent to 39 percent. In April, Bush was ahead of the unnamed nominee, 45 percent to 40 percent.
(via Joe Rospars and John P. Hoke, my e-mail from the Dean Campaign was corrupted for some reason)