Moving west now to California, we look at some vice presidential matchups there. We’ve added New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to the mix in this batch of polling; while 2 of 3 pairings including Richardson poll more strongly for the Democrats than a straight McCain/Obama matchup, it’s not by a large margin. Further, a close look at the crosstabs for this poll show Richardson does not significantly help Obama among Hispanic American voters in California.

Caveats abound.

• It is June.
• Most of the names mentioned are not household names.
• Any VP selection by either candidate would result in a large amount of media “roll-out” coverage; that’s the point at which these candidates become known, and until that time,  it’s worth remembering these polls are snapshots in time. At this time, on June 20 2008, with data clustered so closely together, it is extremely difficult to draw concrete conclusions about anything beyond June 20.

Research conducted for KABC-TV Los Angeles, KGTV-TV San Diego, KPIX-TV San Francisco, and KFSN-TV Fresno.