Barbara Boxer is California's own Teflon dona, but it looks like she better hunker down on this one.

The latest Public Policy Institute of California poll has California's longtime incumbent Senator up a tight five points against businesswoman and Republican challenger Carly Fiorina as we head toward November's election.

Boxer's lead has dwindled by a statistically marginal but nonetheless eye-popping two points since September. Is this a real race? As Sarah “Nailin'” Palin would say, you betcha.

Boxer leads Fiorina among likely voters 43 percent to 38 percent, according the PPIC's numbers. In September Boxer was leading 42 percent to 35 percent.

Like the rest of the nation, Californians seem a little bummed out with incumbents and Democrats, and that could be rubbing off on Boxer.

“The Senate race closed a bit in Fiorina's favor,” political analyst Tony Quinn, co-editor of the California Target Book, told the Weekly. “There is some evidence that Boxer is suffering from general unhappiness at the federal level.”

If Congress flipped Republican after November's election, California voters would be A-okay with that: 40 percent said it would be a good thing; 33 percent said it would be bad, and 25 percent (the smart ones, in our view) said it would make no difference at all.

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