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Campbell takes Silicon Valley in new San Jose State poll
Ken McLaughlin
kmclaughlin@mercurynews.com
Posted: 11/16/2009 06:09:47 PM PST
Tom Campbell, Silicon Valley's onetime Golden Boy, is still, well, golden.
In a San Jose State University poll released Monday, Campbell, a former Silicon Valley congressman seeking the GOP nomination for governor, crushed his competition — former eBay chief Meg Whitman and state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a valley entrepreneur.
Among 200 Silicon Valley Republicans who indicated they were likely to vote in the June primary, Campbell won the poll with 39 percent. Eleven percent preferred Whitman; 7 percent chose Poizner. Forty-one percent were still undecided.
The survey, conducted from Sept. 29 to Oct. 7, was part of a telephone poll of 765 Silicon Valley adults by SJSU's Survey and Policy Research Institute. The Republican sample has a margin of error of plus or minus 6.93 percentage points.
Campbell has been a fixture on the Silicon Valley political scene since David Packard and other valley heavyweights supported his first run for Congress. That was in 1988, two years after Campbell became a tenured law professor at Stanford at age 34.
The fiscally conservative but socially moderate Republican, now 57, spent 10 years in Congress and later served as a state senator, state finance director and dean of UC-Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
Ironically, he's now the only major GOP candidate who doesn't live in the valley. He now resides in Orange County, where he is a visiting professor at Chapman School of Law. Whitman lives in Atherton, Poizner in Los Gatos.
Whitman, who started advertising heavily on radio in late September, had led most recent polls. A recent statewide Los Angeles Times and University of Southern California poll had her beating Campbell 35 percent to 27 percent, with Poizner at 10 percent.
"It's not ideological,'' pollster Jamie Fisfis, Campbell's spokesman, said of the SJSU survey. "It's about the fact that the more you get to know Tom, the more you like him. And these are the people who know Tom the best. He's always been a straightforward, honest broker, and you're seeing the results of that.''
Larry Gerston, a San Jose State political science professor, cited two reasons Campbell came out on top:
"He is by far the most grounded in terms of history in Silicon Valley, and people know him as an elected official. And he also has an interesting combination of values. He's pro-choice, pro-gay-marriage and fits in much better in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area than in other parts of the state.''
Bill Whalen, a former speechwriter for Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, agreed.
Now a research fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, Whalen said his fellow fellows at the conservative think tank divide their support among Campbell, Whitman and Poizner. "But there's a lot of warmth with Tom Campbell,'' he said.
Although there are pockets of staunch conservatives in Silicon Valley, Whalen said, the typical Republican here is a centrist — concerned about fiscal responsibility and holding the line on taxes and government regulation, but also serious about making sure education is properly funded.
Although Whitman is something of a Silicon Valley icon, "the Republicans voters may know her as CEO of eBay, but not as a candidate,'' he said. "They know Campbell for his public service and as a candidate.'
Whitman's spokeswoman, Sarah Pompei, said of the poll:
"As a result of her commitment to grow jobs and cut wasteful government spending, Meg is leading the statewide race by a growing margin, but we know we'll need to work hard to win votes in Silicon Valley."
The three-way race is expected to change dramatically in January after Poizner, who earned his fortune putting GPS technology into cell phones, begins his own advertising blitz.
And that's the reason Campbell, whose fundraising still hasn't topped a million dollars and who still personally answers questions on the Internet, is still seen as a dark horse.
Whalen described him as "the dream candidate'' who believes that somehow you can stick out in a crowd by "taking a hands-on approach and saying what you mean and meaning what you say — and that you will be rewarded by the voters.''
But, he added, political dreams don't always work out.
Campbell takes Silicon Valley in new San Jose State poll
Ken McLaughlin
kmclaughlin@mercurynews.com
Posted: 11/16/2009 06:09:47 PM PST
Tom Campbell, Silicon Valley's onetime Golden Boy, is still, well, golden.
In a San Jose State University poll released Monday, Campbell, a former Silicon Valley congressman seeking the GOP nomination for governor, crushed his competition — former eBay chief Meg Whitman and state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a valley entrepreneur.
Among 200 Silicon Valley Republicans who indicated they were likely to vote in the June primary, Campbell won the poll with 39 percent. Eleven percent preferred Whitman; 7 percent chose Poizner. Forty-one percent were still undecided.
The survey, conducted from Sept. 29 to Oct. 7, was part of a telephone poll of 765 Silicon Valley adults by SJSU's Survey and Policy Research Institute. The Republican sample has a margin of error of plus or minus 6.93 percentage points.
Campbell has been a fixture on the Silicon Valley political scene since David Packard and other valley heavyweights supported his first run for Congress. That was in 1988, two years after Campbell became a tenured law professor at Stanford at age 34.
The fiscally conservative but socially moderate Republican, now 57, spent 10 years in Congress and later served as a state senator, state finance director and dean of UC-Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
Ironically, he's now the only major GOP candidate who doesn't live in the valley. He now resides in Orange County, where he is a visiting professor at Chapman School of Law. Whitman lives in Atherton, Poizner in Los Gatos.
Whitman, who started advertising heavily on radio in late September, had led most recent polls. A recent statewide Los Angeles Times and University of Southern California poll had her beating Campbell 35 percent to 27 percent, with Poizner at 10 percent.
"It's not ideological,'' pollster Jamie Fisfis, Campbell's spokesman, said of the SJSU survey. "It's about the fact that the more you get to know Tom, the more you like him. And these are the people who know Tom the best. He's always been a straightforward, honest broker, and you're seeing the results of that.''
Larry Gerston, a San Jose State political science professor, cited two reasons Campbell came out on top:
"He is by far the most grounded in terms of history in Silicon Valley, and people know him as an elected official. And he also has an interesting combination of values. He's pro-choice, pro-gay-marriage and fits in much better in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area than in other parts of the state.''
Bill Whalen, a former speechwriter for Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, agreed.
Now a research fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, Whalen said his fellow fellows at the conservative think tank divide their support among Campbell, Whitman and Poizner. "But there's a lot of warmth with Tom Campbell,'' he said.
Although there are pockets of staunch conservatives in Silicon Valley, Whalen said, the typical Republican here is a centrist — concerned about fiscal responsibility and holding the line on taxes and government regulation, but also serious about making sure education is properly funded.
Although Whitman is something of a Silicon Valley icon, "the Republicans voters may know her as CEO of eBay, but not as a candidate,'' he said. "They know Campbell for his public service and as a candidate.'
Whitman's spokeswoman, Sarah Pompei, said of the poll:
"As a result of her commitment to grow jobs and cut wasteful government spending, Meg is leading the statewide race by a growing margin, but we know we'll need to work hard to win votes in Silicon Valley."
The three-way race is expected to change dramatically in January after Poizner, who earned his fortune putting GPS technology into cell phones, begins his own advertising blitz.
And that's the reason Campbell, whose fundraising still hasn't topped a million dollars and who still personally answers questions on the Internet, is still seen as a dark horse.
Whalen described him as "the dream candidate'' who believes that somehow you can stick out in a crowd by "taking a hands-on approach and saying what you mean and meaning what you say — and that you will be rewarded by the voters.''
But, he added, political dreams don't always work out.
