Congressman Bob Filner leads City Councilman Carl DeMaio by three percentage points in the race to be San Diego's next mayor, according to a 10News/SurveyUSA poll released today.
Of the 537 likely voters surveyed, 46 percent said they would vote for Filner, while 43 percent would vote for DeMaio. Eleven percent are undecided.
However, Filner's lead over DeMaio falls within the poll's 4.3 percent margin of error.
Filner leads among voters ages 18 to 64, while DeMaio leads among voters 65 and older. Women also strongly favor Filner, with 50 percent supporting him and 37 percent supporting DeMaio.
While the race for mayor is non-partisan, 70 percent of Republicans plan to vote for DeMaio, who is a Republican; 67 percent of Democrats plan to vote for Filner, who is a Democrat. Independents favor Filner by 8 percentage points.
Those who voted for District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis in the June 5 primary for San Diego mayor now favor Filner by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. Those who voted for Nathan Fletcher are evenly divided. Those who did not vote in the primary but who say they are certain to vote in the general election narrowly favor DeMaio, with 26 percent still undecided.
SurveyUSA accurately predicted the outcome of the June 5 mayoral primary. In a poll taken May 31, DeMaio led with 31 percent of the vote and Filner was in second with 28 percent. In actual voting results, DeMaio earned 32 percent of the vote and Filner 30 percent.
The general election will be Nov. 6, 2012.
