Poll: SF Mayor's Race a Dead Heat

An exclusive CBS 5 Eyewitness News poll shows that the San Francisco's mayor's race is a dead heat, with Matt Gonzalez slightly ahead of Gavin Newsom.

Gonzalez was understandably pleased to hear the results when we met up with him Friday morning.

"I'm glad to hear that," he said. "We've been getting hit with so much negative press and mail from Newsom's camp, I'm pleased to know that folks are withstanding all of that."

The pollsters from Survey USA interviewed 534 San Franciscans who identified themselves as "certain" to vote. They were surveyed after this past Tuesday's final mayoral debate here on CBS-5 TV.

The poll shows Gonzalez with a slight lead over Newsom: 50% to 48%. Two percent were undecided. But because the margin of error is 4.3%, the Gonzalez lead is well within that margin.

If there's any good news for Newsom, it's that he's doing better in this poll than in our previous two polls, where he was also behind. Still, he wasn't happy to be hit with this news Friday.

"What, am I down by 40 points in the KPIX poll?" he said. "We said this was going to be a close race. None of this surprises me... the key is to get our supporters to the polls."



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