With big lead in poll, Jerry Brown is also raising big bucks

California Governor Jerry Brown joined by his wife Anne Gust-Brown, as he speaks to the news media in front of the Governor's Mansion near the State Capitol on Tuesday June 3, 2014, in Sacramento, Calif. California Governor Jerry Brown joined by his wife Anne Gust-Brown, as he speaks to the news media in front of the Governor's Mansion near the State Capitol on Tuesday June 3, 2014, in Sacramento, Calif. Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close With big lead in poll, Jerry Brown is also raising big bucks 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Gov. Jerry Brown, who has a nearly 20-point lead in a new poll, also has more than $22 million in the bank after scooping up $1.6 million in a little more than a month, according to a report his campaign filed with California's secretary of state.

The donations to the governor during the most recent reporting period included a $27,200 check from Cisco Systems head John Chambers, who gave more than $50,000 in 2010 to Brown's Republican opponent, Meg Whitman.

The $1.6 million that Brown took in from May 18 to June 30 brought his total donations for the year to $5.6 million and swelled his campaign's bank account to $22.3 million, his campaign's reports show.

But the governor's famously thrifty campaign spent just $37,000 in the same reporting period and has spent only $200,000 so far this year. "He would rather eat glass than spend money unnecessarily," said Dan Newman, a spokesman for the campaign.

Brown almost certainly has more money to spend before the Nov. 4 election than his Republican opponent, Neel Kashkari, who had $1.7 million as of mid-May. Kashkari has not filed his reports for the most recent campaign period.

Besides Chambers, Brown's contributors included Cox Communications, PepsiCo, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, the American Beverage Association California PAC, Ernst and Young, and the Federal Express Political Action Committee. All of them have given the maximum of $27,200 for both the primary and general elections.

Brown's advantage over Kashkari is more than financial. A new Public Policy Institute of California poll shows the governor leading his challenger by 52 percent to 33 percent among likely voters.

The poll also showed that Brown's job approval rating is strong, with 53 percent of all those surveyed and 56 percent of likely voters giving him the thumbs up.

The poll was based on a telephone survey of 1,705 California residents taken from July 8-15. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points for all respondents and 4.7 percentage points for 984 likely voters surveyed.