Republican front-runner Donald Trump has a sizable lead among California Republican voters, according to a new poll. California Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo says the Donald is favored by 39 percent of GOP voters, ahead of Texas Senator Ted Cruz with 33 percent. Ohio Governor John Kasich trails with 18 percent and 11 percent are undecided. But Trump’s statewide lead may not translate into a big delegate grab in the June primary. The reasons, says DiCamillo, is that California is winner take all within each congressional district, not the whole state.
“There are 53 congressional districts across the state; each of them get assigned three delegates. You have to win within each of the small little regions of the state in order to come away with most of the delegates. What’s significant about our poll is that preferences in the Republican primary are not evenly distributed. There are very different views about the Republican primary in different regions of the state. What that seems to indicate to us is that it would likely dilute the delegate advantage accrued by the winner, no matter who wins the overall statewide vote.”
Whichever Republican candidate wins the most delegates is apportioned the 10 delegates at large.
DiCamillo says views of Trump have not changed all that much in the last three months. His supporters stick with him no matter what. Cruz has gained in nationwide delegate count in recent primaries, but he will need to pull more voters away from Kasich if he wants to get within striking distance of Trump here in California.
DiCamillo was a guest on 790 KABC’s McIntyre in the Morning with Doug McIntyre and Terri-Rae Elmer.
By Sandy Wells
