Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley
Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley is leading San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris in California's attorney general race, according to poll results released over the weekend.
The Field Poll showed Cooley, a Republican, ahead of Harris, a Democrat, by a 37 percent to 34 percent margin.
In a blog post Monday on Cooley's campaign website, he wrote, "a closer examination of the numbers is even more encouraging."
His campaign quoted a recent article from The Sacramento Bee, saying, "both Democratic and Republican voters by 2-1 margins hold favorable views of Cooley's image."
The Bee continued, "Opinions of Harris are more partisan, with Democrats by a more than 2-1 margin holding positive views and Republicans by a nearly 4-1 margin holding negative views.
Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo told The Bee, "Cooley is well-liked across party lines. There's not that partisan cast to his image."
DiCamillo told the newspaper "it is unusual for a Republican to hold a lead in a Democratic-leaning California in the early stages, when neither is well-known."
In Cooley's post Monday, he also quoted a recent San Francisco Chronicle report.
"All voters, DiCamillo said, have a more favorable than unfavorable perception of both of the GOP candidates (for LG and AG)," the Chronicle's report said.
"That's a good starting point for Cooley, DiCamillo said. Democrats have a natural advantage because they have 13 percent more registered voters in the state."
The Field Poll findings, according to Cooley's office, point out that "Harris is viewed in a very partisan light" and that "non-partisans also have a more negative than positive view of the San Francisco District Attorney."
The findings also note that "Cooley has a slight edge over Harris among both men and women" and that "Cooley and Harris are evenly dividing the vote of voters under age 50, while Cooley leads among voters age 50 or older by seven points."
Harris' campaign did not comment on the poll's findings.
