Also surprising is Angelides’ slide in the polls due to a loss of support among voters in the Bay Area, a region known for supporting Democrats. Last month, both candidates showed 39 percent support. This most recent poll now shows 40 percent of Bay Area voters support Schwarzenegger and 34 percent support Angelides. The good news for Angelides is that his numbers have seen a spike in support among Latino voters in the last month. Since September, he’s gained a 10 percent lead, with 52 percent of Latinos saying they favor him, while 25 percent support Schwarzenegger. The poll also discussed issues and likely voters say the main issues they would like to see the candidates address are being ignored. At the top of the list is immigration (21%), education (19%), state taxes and the budget (10%), and jobs and the economy (7%). 60 percent of likely voters say they are not satisfied with the attention the candidates are giving these issues.

That dissatisfaction may be having an affect on how informed voters are on the issues. 74 percent say they follow news about the election closely, while only 19 percent say they follow the news very closely. The findings of this poll are based on a telephone survey of 2,002 California adult residents conducted between October 15 and October 22, 2006. The sampling error is +/- two percent. The sampling error for the 1,076 likely voters is +/- three percent.(end)am News10 Contributed to this story.