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(2010-03-16 17:20:36)
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Democratic stalwart Barbara Boxer risks losing her U.S. Senate seat in the November election, a California poll showed on Thursday, in a sign that voter backlash is spreading to a reliably liberal state.
President Barack Obama is defending strong Democratic majorities in Congress at a time when dissatisfaction is high and the controlling party has failed to pass two high priority bills, on health care and climate change.
Voter fury which swept in Republican Senator Scott Brown in Massachusetts appeared not to apply to California in January, but the situation has changed quickly, said Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo.
"This seat is much more competitive than any previous election that Boxer has faced," he said. "I think it's a toss-up state." Boxer's campaign said on Wednesday that Obama for the first time planned to come to California to campaign for the senator.
Boxer's unfavorable rating has shot up to 51 percent from 39 percent in two months and she is in a statistical dead heat when compared with the two leading candidates for the Republican nomination, former Congressman Tom Campbell and former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chief Executive Carly Fiorina.
"Voters are really recoiling at what is going on in Washington with health reform," DiCamillo said. "Whether you are a supporter of health reform or not, you don't like the way the process has been handled."
Health care changes have been moving through Congress in a start-and-stop process that has been extremely divisive. There may be a healthcare vote in the U.S. House of Representatives this weekend.
Brown, who campaigned in a pickup truck, was elected in part on a promise to stop the national health plan, and his victory was seen as a dramatic evidence of Democrats' vulnerability in the Congressional elections set for November.
A poll from Democratic organization Democratic Corp early this month showed that people rated Democrats and Republicans about the same, an erosion for Obama's party, and 60 percent felt the country was on the wrong track.
Campbell led Fiorina by six percentage points and state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore by 19 points in the poll of likely voters in the June Republican primary. Campbell polled 28 percent support, Fiorina 22 percent and DeVore 9 percent.
Those Republican numbers were similar to two months ago.
But in January Boxer, a strong proponent of climate change legislation with a reputation as a liberal firebrand, had substantial double-digit leads over each of the three potential Republican rivals. Now she is four points ahead of DeVore and roughly even with the other two.
(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Todd Eastham)
