Confounding the political punditocracy, Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox is rising rapidly in the polls and is now so close to overtaking Democrat Gavin Newsom that he's nearly within the margin of error of winning. That's what a new statewide poll from Probolsky Research , conducted Aug. 29-Sep. 2 among 900 likely voters, found.

If California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom was expecting an easy race for the governor's mansion, a poll released Thursday didn't carry much in the way of good news. While the statewide poll from Probolsky Research showed Newsom leading with 44 percent of respondents, his Republican opponent John Cox had 39 percent support; a further 17 percent of those polled were unsure whom they would support.

So all the pundit claims about Cox running in an unwinnable race, due to the Democrats' voter registration advantage, seem to be falling apart.

Here's another deet that won't make the Democrats' candidate happy: the trend that's Cox's friend.

On June 19, a USC-Dornsife-Los Angeles Times poll had Newsom in the lead, 45% to Cox's 28%.

On June 27, a SurveyUSA poll had Newsom in the lead even more, by 58% to 29%.

But on July 25, a Public Policy Institute of California poll had Newsom ever so slightly starting to slip – and Cox starting to gain, with a 55% to 31% reading.

Now the Probolsky readout is 44% Newsom, 39% Cox, and plenty of undecideds.

What a coincidence: The precipitous drop comes right after Newsom promised free taxpayer-paid health care to the state's millions of illegal aliens.

Admittedly, these polls are sparse, and I am not sure how good most of them are. But it does suggest there's a trend on, with Newsom not only slipping, but Cox gaining, and that may well be because of Newsom's promise of free health care for illegals. As insult to injury for Newsom, it turns out the Hispanic vote is nearly evenly split in favor of Cox, which undoubtedly represents a rise for Cox from a constituency Newsom thought he had in the bag. Apparently, that didn't impress Latino voters the way Newsom thought it would, because, well, those voters, all of whom would be citizens, not illegals, are going to be the ones paying for it.

Cox, based on his website, hasn't said much about the health care issue, but he is focusing on issues that are important to Latino voters, rather than Latino (and other) illegals. Apparently, Cox sees two different groups of people among the citizens and non-citizens, while Newsom sees just skin color.

A visit to Cox's campaign website shows that he's capitalizing on the real problems that plague Californians, such as the monster gas tax, which slaps people too poor to find housing in the cities where their jobs are the hardest. That includes a lot of Latinos. He's also criticizing the crappy schools the leftists run here, which put California at the bottom of the barrel in the educational rankings, as well as the high poverty rate in the state, again, the work of Democrats in a one-party state. Polls have repeatedly shown that schools are an issue for Latinos. The video he has at the top of his page is well worth watching, because it looks effective.

Newsom, by contrast, has little message other than buttressing the entrenched establishment and promising more of its green, Bernie-bro, and socially liberal agenda, as well as shoveling pork.

Old swamp lizard Democrat Willie Brown apparently knew what he was talking about when he warned Democrats that Cox could win.

Now Cox is closing in, and if the trend holds, he may easily be over the top by election day. So much for the pundits who wrote him off earlier. The race is real, Vice President Mike Pence is joining in to help campaign, and the Trump revolution may well be extending to the unlikeliest of places.