By JACK CHANG, Sacramento Bee

The reasons are in dispute, but the trend is clear: The California Highway Patrol is handing out more traffic citations than it did a few years ago, and that has generated tens of millions of dollars in new revenue for state and local government.

Judging from her résumé, Leah Cox has the makings of a solid political candidate.

Cox, of Orangevale, Calif., heads a nonprofit group that briefs legislators on obesity-prevention policy and has spent years in public life.

Still, Cox wondered whether she had enough experience to be a legislator. She worried about voters' views of female candidates.

Forty-eight years after her father was the California GOP's candidate for lieutenant governor, Anne Gust Brown has emerged as a key Democratic advisor to her husband -- gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown.

After months of negative advertising fueled by more than $100 million in campaign spending, the California governor's race is the closest it's been this near the election in two decades.

Six weeks from Nov. 2, Republican Meg Whitman and Democrat Jerry Brown are dead even in a new poll. Voters are increasingly negative about both of them, according to a nonpartisan Field Poll.

From Bill Clinton to Pete Wilson to Jimmy Carter, Jerry Brown has faced some of the country's toughest politicians in his 40 years of public life and become one of California's most venerable political figures in the process.

This election year, however, the 72-year-old is taking on what may be his most fearsome rival ever as he vies to return to the governor's office.

The past month has not been kind to Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman.

The first hit came when her GOP rival Steve Poizner and labor unions went after her ties to the investment firm Goldman Sachs, just as federal investigators launched a criminal probe of the company.

Meg Whitman had just finished delivering her campaign stump speech for an audience in El Dorado Hills, Calif., several months ago when she asked for questions from the crowd.

Two words, phrased as a statement, were the first to pop from the audience of about 30 people: "Illegal aliens."

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has built a massive edge over her GOP rival Steve Poizner while taking a narrow lead over likely Democratic nominee Jerry Brown, according to results released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Field Poll.

Her move is a major feat in a state where Democratic voters far outnumber Republicans.

As tens of thousands of Californians lose their jobs every month, the high-stakes race for governor is becoming a referendum on how to stem the unemployment tide and get people back into the labor market.

One candidate in next year's gubernatorial race contributed thousands of dollars to Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and John Kerry.

Another wrote $21,000 in checks to Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore and the Democratic National Committee in 2000.