Question:
Suppose in next year’s general election for U.S. Senate, Democratic U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer were
running against Republican businesswoman Carly Fiorina. If these were the candidates and the election for
U.S. Senate was being held today, for whom would you vote – Boxer or Fiorina?
Suppose in next year’s general election for U.S. Senate, Democratic U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer were
running against Republican Assemblyman Chuck DeVore. If these were the candidates and the election for
U.S. Senate was being held today, for whom would you vote – Boxer or DeVore?

Total Democrats Republicans Non-partisans/others

Boxer (D) 49% 74% 14% 49%
Fiorina (R) 35 13 68 33
Undecided 16 13 18 18

Boxer (D) 50% 75% 10% 55%
DeVore (R) 33 10 72 25
Undecided 17 15 18 20

Poll Demographics

About this Poll
The findings in this report are based on a random sampling of 1,005 registered voters in California. Questions
about the GOP primary were asked of a random cross section of 373 Republican primary election voters.
Interviewing was conducted by telephone in English and Spanish between September 18 and October 6, 2009.
In order to cover a broad range of issues and still minimize potential respondent fatigue, some of the questions
asked in this release were asked of a random sub-sample of either 509 or 496 voters each.
The sample was developed from telephone listings of individual voters selected randomly from a statewide list
of registered voters in California. Once a voter’s name and telephone number had been selected, interviews
were attempted only with the specified voter. Up to six attempts were made to reach and interview each
randomly selected voter on different days and times of day during the interviewing period. Interviews were
conducted on either the voter’s landline or cell phone, depending on the source of the telephone listing from the
voter file and the preference of the voter. After the completion of interviewing, the results were weighted to
known distributions of registered voters by party and by other demographic and regional characteristics of the
state’s registered voter population.
Sampling error estimates applicable to any probability-based survey depend on sample size. The maximum
sampling error for results based on the overall sample of registered voters is +/- 3.2 percentage points at the
95% confidence level, while findings from each random sub-sample, as well as the GOP primary, have a
sampling error of +/- 4.5 percentage points. The maximum sampling error is based on percentages in the
middle of the sampling distribution (percentages around 50%). Percentages at either end of the distribution
(percentages around 10% or around 90%) have a smaller margin of error. While there are other potential
sources of error in surveys besides sampling error, the overall design and execution of the survey minimized the
potential for these other sources of error. The maximum sampling error will be larger for analyses based on
subgroups of the overall sample.
Questions Asked
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