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San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's lead over his Republican opponent in the race for lieutenant governor has shrunk to four percentage points, down from nine points two months ago, a Field Poll has found.

Newsom is far better known than Maldonado, but voters also tend to view the San Francisco mayor positively or negatively depending on their party affiliation. He leads among Democrats with 65 percent of the vote, but just 4 percent of likely GOP voters said they would support him. Maldonado only receives support from 11 percent of likely Democratic voters, but gets backing from 69 percent of Republicans. Nonpartisans also prefer Newsom to Maldonado - 41 to 28 percent - but nearly one-third are still undecided.

"In this race what you have are very different image ratings of the two candidates - Newsom is clearly better known ... and it's true in any contest that the better known candidate polls better," DiCamillo said. "The question is what will happen when Maldonado becomes almost universally known, which will happen before the election. I'm sure Newsom's campaign is trying to get the word out and define who Maldonado is before he defines himself."

Voter images of the two candidates are also telling: 41 percent have a negative image of Newsom, compared with 17 percent for Maldonado. But 47 percent have no opinion of Maldonado.

"Newsom will have a tough time winning any support among Republicans ... but he's doing so well with the other 65 percent (of likely voters) he may not need them," DiCamillo said.