After months of negative advertising fueled by more than $100 million in campaign spending, the California governor's race is the closest it's been this near the election in two decades.

Six weeks from Nov. 2, Republican Meg Whitman and Democrat Jerry Brown are dead even, and voters are increasingly negative about both of them, according to a nonpartisan Field Poll released Wednesday.

"This race is boiling down to a tough decision," said Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo. "More voters hold negative than positive impressions of the candidates, and that contributes to the situation."

Brown and Whitman each polled 41 percent of likely voters.

A governor's race hasn't been this close at this stage since 1990, when then-U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson and Democrat Dianne Feinstein were in a statistical tie in late August.

Nearly a fifth of voters remain undecided, including independent Roy Francis of Sacramento, who said he hasn't seen anything from either candidate or their TV commercials that's excited him this year. He said he was leaning toward Brown ever so slightly.

"It's just the lesser of two evils like it is 90 percent of time," said the retired maintenance worker. "I will not vote for Meg Whitman because all she's saying is deregulate, deregulate … And I wish Brown had a few more ideas about what he's going to do."

The Field Poll, however, gave both Whitman and Brown news to celebrate.

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