SAN FRANCISCO - Hillary Clinton holds a 12-percentage-point lead over Barack Obama among Democrats likely to vote in California's primary, the biggest prize for Democrats on Super Tuesday, Feb. 5, according to poll results released yesterday.
Thirty-nine percent said they would vote for Clinton, while 27 percent said they would vote for Obama, according to the survey conducted by The Field Poll. John Edwards was third at 10 percent. Twenty percent remain undecided.
Voters who ranked healthcare, jobs, and the economy as the campaign's most important issues were more likely to favor Clinton, whose lead is largest among women, Latinos, and lower-income voters. Clinton campaigned yesterday in California, where she picked up the endorsement of United Farm Workers, adding another powerful union to her stable of labor supporters. The union is active in 10 states and represents 27,000 farm workers.
Voters who ranked the Iraq war and foreign policy as the most important issues were more likely to favor Obama, who was preferred by blacks, college graduates, and those with household incomes of $80,000 or more.
The poll was taken between Jan. 14 and Jan. 20 and had a margin of error of 5.2 percentage points.
REUTERS AND ASSOCIATED PRESS
In an e-mail to Obama supporters yesterday, Kerry reminded them of what happened to him in 2004 when a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth challenged his Vietnam War record.
"The truth matters, but how you fight the lies matters even more," he writes. "We must be determined never again to lose any election to a lie."
The e-mail includes links to an Obama campaign truth-squad website, and Kerry urges recipients to use the material to alert friends, post printouts at work, call radio stations, and write letters to the editor. "So when your inbox fills up with trash and the e-mails of smear and fear, find the facts, and help defeat the lies," Kerry wrote.
FOON RHEE
But in a TV ad he began airing yesterday in South Carolina, Edwards aims squarely at both his Democratic rivals as he tries to pull off a comeback in the state where he was born.
"One gets more money than anyone from drug companies. The other one takes more money than anyone from Washington lobbyists," the narrator says as photos of Clinton and Obama appear on the screen.
"What's happened to the Democratic Party? Whatever happened to the party of the people? Good question," the narrator continues, as a montage of Edwards on the campaign trail appears.
Yesterday, Edwards won the endorsement of the Communications Workers of America, which has more than 2,200 active members and more than 1,700 retired members in the state.
He also gave details of an economic plan his campaign said would give the state’s struggling economy $1.5 billion in relief.
"Our country is no longer on the brink of a recession. I mean we're in one," Edwards said yesterday.
GLOBE STAFF AND ASSOCIATED PRESS
