Inside Bay Area - Clinton, Giuliani take lead in early state voter poll

Inside Bay Area - Clinton, Giuliani take lead in early state voter poll: "Clinton, Giuliani take lead in early state voter poll By Mary Anne Ostrom, MEDIANEWS STAFF Article Last Updated: 03/30/2007 03:50:52 AM PDT California voters, like the national electorate, favor Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani in the first statewide poll of presidential preferences since the 2008 race has taken shape. Each is the choice of about one-third of likely voters in their respective primaries, according to a new Public Policy Institute of California poll released Wednesday. Saturday marks the first-quarter fundraising reporting deadline, an early but important signal indicating who has the means to compete in what's shaping up as the most condensed primary season ever. But more eyes are on another key measure of how the candidates are doing — how much money they are raising at the start of what is expected to be the first $1 billion presidential race in history. As the first national measure of fund-raising prowess, it 'will be important for candidates to show they're in the game,' said Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies. 'But it's like the third inning, or as John McCain has said, spring training for an election nearly a year away.' In the PPIC survey, Clinton, the New York senator, is the choice of 35 percent of likely California Democratic primary voters, followed by Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former vice presidential nominee John Edwards. The survey ended two days before Edwards announced his wife's cancer had returned. "