California’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown was in San Diego Thursday for a campaign stop at New Leaf Biofuel in Barrio Logan. The company converts used cooking oil into biodiesel. Brown said small, renewable energy businesses are the wave of the future.
“This is small business, but it is reflective of the seeds of change that California must invest in,” said Brown. “Yes, we need to support our large, existing businesses, but we need the climate for innovation and creativity.”
Brown urged the defeat of Proposition 23, the California November ballot measure that would suspend the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act, AB 32, until unemployment rates improve. Brown said rejecting the measure could create a half-million clean-tech jobs.
Rep. candidate Meg Whitman said she hasn’t made a final decision on the measure, but said her plan for a one-year moratorium on the law would be better for the state.
A new poll shows Whitman leading Brown by eight percentage points. The candidates have been in a tight race for most of the campaign, but the public opinion poll by the Rasmussen Report shows Whitman leading Brown 48 percent to 40 percent. Brown, the former two-term governor, said Whitman’s deep pockets and negative ads are unprecedented.
“This is basically a tie race, said Brown. “That’s what it looks like to me. There’s a massive onslaught-- it’s carpet-bombing of negative commercials. And yet the people are still evenly divided and I think if you look down the road, this is a very competitive race. . .”
The poll surveyed 750 likely California voters, and showed six percent are still undecided. The percentage of error is plus or minus four percent.
