| New polling from Texas Lyceum suggests that Texans have yet to focus on the upcoming elections for Governor and a possible U.S. Senate special election. Of course, since the primaries are still nine months away, it is hard to blame them. There may be some problems with the methodology of these polls, but it never hurts to take a look. Texas Governor (Republican Primary) Rick Perry 33%
Kay Bailey Hutchison 21%
Leo Berman 1% Undecided 45% Even in a race where two candidates are very well known throughout the state, close to half of the Republican primary voters remain undecided, according to the poll. I believe 21 percent is a low water mark for Hutchison's polling. With so many undecideds, however, it may not be very significant.
Texas Governor (Democratic Primary) Kinky Friedman 10%
Tom Schieffer 6%
Leticia Van de Putte 3% Undecided 81% Polling with 81 percent undecideds is almost a waste of time. Although Van de Putte declined to enter the race yesterday, I think most people believe she would have been able to defeat Friedman and Schieffer handily had she decided to run. Given that he received over 12 percent in his run for Governor in 2006 and his name ID is much higher than the others, Kinky's numbers here are not too impressive. U.S. Senate (Special Election) Bill White 9%
Greg Abbott 4%
David Dewhurst 4%
Elizabeth Ames Jones 3%
Roger Williams 3%
Florence Shapiro 2%
John Sharp 2%
Michael Williams 2%
Undecided 71% With a margin of error of 6 percent and 71 percent undecided, it is hard to learn much from this poll. The poll confirms that most people just haven't tuned into this yet to be called special election. At this point in the race, Democrats can be happy that Bill White has by now raised over $3 million and that he and John Sharp have a sizeable advantage in cash on hand over every Republican. |
