Internal poll puts Matt Mahan higher in California governor contest

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is touting a new optimistic poll in his struggle to leave the back of the pack in the crowded race for California governor.

An internal poll of 900 likely primary voters — 100 of whom were Republicans and 800 described by the survey as “open to Democratic candidates” — says Mahan has floated to third place among Democratic candidates in the June 2 election. Yet the poll shows Mahan is still well behind the remaining frontrunners at 8% favorability, while Republican candidate Steve Hilton saw 25%, billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer got 16% and former Democratic Congresswoman Katie Porter got 10%.