Becerra and Hilton pull ahead in California governor's primary Play

With balloting already well in progress, one Democrat and one Republican appear to be pulling ahead of the pack in California's multiway jungle primary.

Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton are now pulling ahead of the pack, setting up a traditional Democrat versus Republican race this fall.

The latest major poll shows Becerra ahead with 23 percent of the vote, followed by Republican Steve Hilton at 20 percent. Tom Steyer registered 15 percent support. Chad Bianco is at 13 percent. Katie Porter, 12 percent.

The poll comes from the Public Policy Institute of California, a respected nonprofit organization.

But all of this is pretty close to the margin of error in the poll. And it is a snapshot in time.

The poll director, Mark Baldassare, says it appears that there are two factors here. One, Eric Swalwell dropped out, and his supporters are generally moving to support Becerra. And two, Donald Trump has endorsed Steve Hilton.

"There are two candidates who are first: Becerra, the Democrat and Hilton the Republican," Baldassare said. "It is still possible that we could have two Democrats come out on top — that would not be the first time we had that happen in a statewide race. But at this point, it's Becerra and Hilton."

This latest PPIC poll shows that California's jungle primary is working as the voters intended. About six in ten say they are satisfied with the choice of candidates in the governor's race and think that the top-two primary has been mostly a good thing.

The poll is once again showing that California is overwhelmingly a Democratic Party stronghold. 64 percent of the state's voters say they favor the Democratic candidate for Congress over the Republican candidate for Congress.

Democratic likely voters are more enthusiastic than others about voting in the congressional election.

And right now the proposed one-time state tax on billionaires looks like it will pass, with a 54 percent yes margin.