Will San Diego Back Hillary Clinton Again in 2016?

California voters wanted Hillary Clinton when she ran for president in 2008, and many San Diegans did, too. A new poll suggests things could follow the same path in 2016, should the former secretary of state choose to run again.

"The current survey finds Clinton’s popularity in California to be as high now as it has ever been," stated the latest Field Poll, which found 56 percent of California voters have a favorable opinion of the Democrat. 

In 2008, then-Sen. Barack Obama narrowly lost to Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary among San Diego voters with 47.09 percent of the vote to her 47.64 percent., and the latter carried the state.

Now, only 30 percent of California voters have an unfavorable opinion of Clinton, a 12 percentage point drop since a poll taken just a few months before the state's 2008 Democratic primary. Half of state voters with no party preference—who since 2012 have been able to vote in Democratic primaries—like her, too.

Opinion hasn't completely shifted in Clinton's favor, though, which could hurt her in the general election.

"The only voter subgroups where significantly more voters view her negatively than positively are Republicans and conservatives," the poll stated. 

About 27 percent of San Diego's registered voters are Republicans. Statewide the party's voters don't really like Clinton, with six out of 10 holding an unfavorable opinion of her. In December 2007, 77 percent of likely Republican voters felt the same way. 

That change is a plus for Clinton now, and the percentage of San Diego voters identifying as Republican has dipped slightly since then while the share of Democrats has held steady. But with Clinton not making it to the 2008 general election, it's not clear whether she could have pulled the support of any Republican voters from a candidate in their own party.

How has your opinion of Clinton changed since 2008? Would you vote for her if she runs for president in 2016?