A day at the races

Nearly a fifth of voters remain undecided, including independent Roy Francis of Sacramento, who said he hasn't seen anything from either candidate or their TV commercials that's excited him this year. He said he was leaning toward Brown ever so slightly."

Another news nugget in the numbers: Whitman is closing the so-called "gender gap," observes the Chron's Carla Marinucci.

Flipping to the Senate race, Republican contender Carly Fiorina crafted a TV ad targeting Democrat Barbara Boxer's demand during a Senate hearing that a brigadier general stop calling her "ma'am."

"Fiorina’s first general election ad uses campaign footage from a well-known exchange between Boxer and Army Corps of Engineers Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh at a hearing more than a year ago of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which Boxer chairs," notes the L.A. Times' Maeve Reston.

"You know, do me a favor. Could you say ‘Senator’ instead of ‘Ma’am’? It’s just a thing. I worked so hard to get that title, so I’d appreciate it,” Boxer says to Walsh.

“Twenty eight years in Washington, and Barbara Boxer works hard for a title?” Fiorina says into the camera with a quick raise of her eyebrows. “I’ll really go to work — to end the arrogance in Washington.”

Speaking of campaigns, Capitol Weekly's Malcolm Maclachlan has taken a look at close legislative races and found that the state Democratic  party is outspending its GOP counterpart.

"If you take out what each candidate has received from their own state political parties, Caballero has outgained Cannella $522,000 to $385,000. But the California Democratic Party has given Caballero $750,000. The State Democratic Central Committee (DCC) has also put in over $200,000, much of it by picking up campaign expenses and other “non-monetary contributions.” This party money makes up the majority of what she has raised."

"With a down economy and lots of anti-incumbent fervor, 2010 is supposed to be a good year for Republicans. But their candidates appear to be working at steep financial disadvantages in key races."

CW's Jennifer Chaussee examines the pocketbook implications of Proposition 19, the marijuana-legalization initiative that also would allow locals to tax the weed.

"Board of Equalization spokeswoman Anita Gore said that without a set taxation rate to work with, estimating the potential fiscal effects of Proposition 19 is almost impossible. There is no telling, said Gore, what counties will participate in the sale or taxation of marijuana. Out of those counties that would embrace the new law, it is equally unclear how they will choose to tax recreational cannabis."

"The BOE released an analysis of Proposition 19 just recently but the report did not include a conclusive fiscal analysis of the initiative."

 Meanwhile, there actually was some non-campaign news: The Riverside Press-Enterprise's Jim Miller and David Danelski report that the state approved a $2 billion solar energy project in the High Desert.

"A 370-megawatt solar field in rural northwest San Bernardino County unanimously cleared the California Energy Commission on Wednesday, the latest in a string of projects on a fast track to qualify for federal stimulus money by the end of the year."

"Unlike the others, the development involves environmentally sensitive land and would displace a protected species, the desert tortoise, which is threatened with extinction."

And finally, we turn our gaze upward and spot an airplane with flapping wings. Really.  Leonardo da Vinci eat your heart out.

"Some people just dream about flying, at night in their dreams. I do,” said David Greatrix, a professor of aerospace engineering at Ryerson University. “Even though we have flying airplanes, it’s not the same.”

"Reichert’s ornithopter flight, which lasted 19.3 seconds and covered 145 metres, is the first entirely powered by a human being. “This is the last first in aviation, and in many ways the most significant one,” said James DeLaurier, who oversaw the project."

Wonder if it can dust crops.