Poll puts Republican John Cox in 2nd place in governor's race

If not for Cox the GOP would simply hand the Governorship to the Democrats

• A new poll puts Republican John Cox of Rancho Santa Fe in second place in the governor’s race.
• If that position holds, he could emerge from the June “top two” primary to face off with a Democrat in the general election.
• A Republican on the ballot could help GOP candidates down-ballot in November.

(San Diego Union Tribune)  -  Republican businessman John Cox has moved into second place in the race for California governor, taking a slight lead over former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat, according to a poll released Wednesday evening.

The new standings suggests the likelihood of two Democrats facing each other in November under California’s “top two” runoff system is diminishing.

Cox, from Rancho Santa Fe, has support from 14 percent of likely voters, according to research from the Public Policy Institute of California. That puts him well behind Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, who had 28 percent. Cox is just ahead of Villaraigosa, who polled at 12 percent, down 9 percentage points over the past three months. The top two candidates in the June primary will advance to the general election, regardless of party.

“It corrects the erroneous presumption that many people have seen in the media that it will somehow be two Democrats” in the general election, Cox said by phone on Thursday. “I don’t think that was ever in the cards. That happened in the 2016 Senate race because there was no major Republican who had any major funding whatsoever.”

With nearly seven weeks until vote-by-mail balloting begins, and even longer until the June 5 primary, the poll also found 24 percent of voters don’t know who they’ll support.

Cox has made significant headway in the governor’s race since January, when a PPIC poll showed him with 7 percent support and narrowly behind Assemblyman Travis Allen, R-Huntington Beach, who was polling at 8 percent.

The campaign for second place is now a “coin-toss race.” Of the two Republicans, Cox has money that makes him GOP’s best shot at finishing in the top-two in the primary, said former San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio, now a conservative talk radio host.

“Nobody knows who Travis Allen is either, but he’s broke,” DeMaio said.

DeMaio and Cox are working together on an effort to repeal a recent increase in the state gas tax to fund transportation projects.

Cox, who made a fortune through a law firm he started and in real estate, put $3 million of his own money into his campaign last year and also raised $518,446 from donors. He said in January he’ll put in at least $1 million more.

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Good. Cox is gaining ground, but there is still no GOP candidate for U.S. Senate.