A rent-controlled apartment in the Bay Area is a coveted find that tenants will hang onto as long as possible. So why is a California ballot measure that would allow cities to expand rent control not just losing here, but trailing by a wider margin than it is statewide?

Proposition 10 was lagging in a recent poll of likely voters by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, 48 percent to 36 percent. In the Bay Area, it was losing, 32 percent to 54 percent — numbers that were especially discouraging for rent control advocates, given that the region has been the epicenter of soaring rents for years.

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