The usual suspects in the OC Blogosphere have been engaged in smug needling of Chuck DeVore's showing in the recent Field Poll, which showed Chuck with 9%, versus potential GOP U.S. Senate primary opponents Arnold Schwarzenegger (31%) and Carly Fiorina (24%).

So, I did a little research to see where incumbent U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer was when the February 1991 Field Poll was conducted. Boxer was a congresswoman then, and generally the weakest general election candidate in the Democratic field due to her very left-wing views.

How did Boxer stack up at the same point in the 1992 U.S. Senate race that DeVore finds himself in with the 2010 race?

There were two Democratic U.S. Senate primaries in June 1992, so Field lumped all the actual and potential candidates into one ballot test and asked respondents their first choice:

Undecided:                                                             27.5%
Dianne Feinstein, former San Francisco Mayor:    25.1%
Jerry Brown, former Governor:                              13.9%
Leo McCarthy, Lieutenant Governor:                     11.7%
Gray Davis, state Controller:                                   8.4%
Barbara Boxer, U.S. Congresswoman:                   8.4%
Robert Matsui, U.S. Congressman                          4.0%
Mel Levine, U.S. Congressman:                             1%

When asked for their second choice, Boxer nabbed only 8.2% of respondents.

The next Field Poll, in May 1991, showed Barbara Boxer losing a hypothetical match-up with Rep. Bob Dornan, 40.1% to 32%.

As we know, Boxer not only beat McCarthy and Levine in the Democratic primary, but edged out GOP Bruce Herschensohn in the general election (with the help of strong Democratic year and a late smear from her campaign).

My point is not that Chuck is destined to defeat Boxer next year - just that it is foolish to cite a Feb. 2009 Field Poll and write off Chuck's chances. There's a lot of time between now and November 2010. The economy continues to worsen in California and nationally, and Obama's economic program  -- and he Democratic Legislature and Arnold here in CA -- are going to make it worse rather than better. And warranted or unwarranted, incumbents generally get the blame for the bad news, as well as the credit for the good.