Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom’s grip on next year’s governor’s race remains strong, according to a new statewide poll from the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley.

Newsom, a San Francisco Democrat, has been the early favorite, and remains the choice of 28 percent of registered voters when paired against four other announced candidates — Republican businessman John Cox and three fellow Democrats, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, state Treasurer John Chiang and former state schools superintendent Delaine Eastin.

Support for the candidates varies by region, party and race or ethnicity. One third of the voters polled expressed no preference at this time.

The Berkeley IGS Poll results are based on a survey of 1,000 California registered voters conducted by the IGS and administered online by YouGov March 13-20 in English and Spanish.