Brown is 75% favorite

That's the latest projection by FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver, and it's up from last week's 60 percent - perhaps a response to the housekeeper kerfuffle involving opponent Meg Whitman (two weeks ago he was the underdog).

The allegations are obviously not helpful to Ms. Whitman, whose campaign has reacted with a certain lack of dexterity -- with Ms. Whitman, for instance, having volunteered to take a polygraph test to rebut them. Such distractions may be relatively more difficult for a candidate like Ms. Whitman, who is running her first campaign for office, and who is used to writing her own script as the former chief executive of eBay.

Recent polls have given Brown a slim margin, though there's plenty of time left, and the former governor has certainly shown a proclivity over the years to shoot himself in the foot. Whitman has spent $140 million on her bid to become governor, most of it from her own pocket.