California poll: Margin-of-error race between Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders
With less than a week until California's June 7 Democratic primary, a new poll finds Hillary Clinton leading Bernie Sanders by just two points.
Clinton takes 49 percent of likely Democratic primary voters in the poll, from NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist, compared with 47 percent for Sanders--within the margin of error. When the poll is expanded to all potential Democratic voters, her lead narrows to just 1 point (48 percent to 47 percent).
In terms of California's geography, Clinton leads Sanders in the Bay Area by 14 points, 56 percent to 42 percent; she's also ahead in Los Angeles County by the same margin (54 percent to 40 percent). Sanders, on the other hand, leads in the inland/valley by 10 points, 54 percent to 44 percent, and on the coast by 22 points, 58 percent to 36 percent.
Though Clinton has a large lead in delegates and is likely to reach the 2,383 required delegates to clinch the nomination Tuesday night, a Sanders win in California would be a big symbolic victory that gives his campaign the data point it needs to continue his fight all the way to the Democratic convention in July.
As a result, Clinton canceled a day of campaigning in New Jersey to add to her California schedule, and both she and former President Bill Clinton will campaign across the state again starting Thursday.
In California's Senate race, polling finds it likely that the state will have its first Democrat-on-Democrat general election race: Democratic Attorney General Kamala Harris leads with 37 percent, followed by Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez with 19 percent. Republican Tom Del Beccaro comes in third with 8 percent. (In California, the top two finishers in the primary advance to the general election, regardless of which party they come from.)
The poll surveyed 557 likely Democratic voters, 991 potential Democratic primary voters and 1,833 registered voters rom May 29-31. The margin of error for the likely Democratic sample is +/- 4.2 points; for potential Democratic primary voters it's +/- 3.1 points and for the registered voters sample it's +/- 2.3 points.
