Matt Ortega

Swing State Project passed along the numbers from a recent Rasmussen poll in the California governor's race that shows a tie between Jerry Brown, the Democratic attorney general and former governor, and Republican political neophyte Meg Whitman.

Jerry Brown (D): 41 (44)
Meg Whitman (R): 41 (35)
Some other: 3 (3)
Not sure: 14 (18)

The poll also showed larger Brown margins over other Republicans vying for the nomination: Tom Campbell (+9) and Steve Poizner (+12).

Rasmussen polls typically skew in favor of Republicans and readers at Swing State Project don't buy these numbers at all, either.

It is hard to imagine what Whitman has done to boost her numbers by six points. Lie about state government spending? Petty purity fights with Steve Poizner?

Swing State Projects questions the sampling used by Rasmussen:

Although Californians are understood to be in a surly mood these days, all the candidates clock in with positive favorables: Brown is at 48/41, Whitman is at 47/27, Campbell is at 40/20, and Poizner is at 36/26. I'm a little surprised at this level of name-rec for the Republicans, considering how little-known they have tended to be in other polls. Another tidbit that points to the effect of Rasmussen's likely voter screen: Barack Obama has a 55/43 approval -- a good number, to be sure, but most pollsters have had Obama in the low-to-mid 60s in California, as it usually tends to be one of his best states for approval ratings (in fact, given California's size, it's probably single-handedly responsible for keeping Obama's nationwide approvals in the mid-50s).

Essentially these numbers mean bupkis.