LOS ANGELES _ Latino voters in California strongly support Antonio Villaraigosa in the governor's race, but a significant number remain undecided, according to a new poll released Wednesday.
Villaraigosa, the former mayor of Los Angeles, was backed by 31 percent of Latino registered voters in a Latino Community Foundation poll, while Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom was backed by 14 percent. The rest of the candidates polled in the low single digits. The greatest number of respondents, 36 percent, said they were undecided.
The poll of 900 Latino registered voters was conducted by landline and cellphone calls and online between Jan. 6-14, and has a margin of error of 3.3 points in either direction. Conducted by the consulting group Latino Decisions, the survey will be released publicly later Wednesday.
Winning Latino votes is key to Villaraigosa's path to victory in the governor's race, where he finds himself in second place in most polls and badly trailing Newsom in fundraising.
This new poll points to a key challenge: While Villaraigosa is popular in the Latino community, more than one-third of Latino voters do not know who they plan to vote for in the governor's race. This may be attributed to Villaraigosa leaving elected office five years ago.
Villaraigosa has been heavily courting Latino voters, and on Wednesday will appear at two events in the Los Angeles suburb of Bell, where more than nine out of 10 residents are Latino. On Jan. 25, the gubernatorial candidates will face off at a forum at the University of California, Los Angeles sponsored by Univision and moderated by anchors Jorge Ramos and Ilia Calderon.
