The Polling Center: First Take on the February 2010 Results | 2/12/10
The University of Texas / Texas Tribune poll, conducted from February 1-7, shows Gov. Rick Perry holding a 24-point lead over U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican gubernatorial primary contest, with Debra Medina posing a surprisingly strong challenge to Hutchison for second place. Perry garnered 45% of the vote, Hutchison 21%, Debra Medina 19%, with 16% undecided. The sample of 366 Republican primary voters has a margin of error of +/- 5.12 percentage points.
In the Democratic primary, former Houston Mayor Bill White has a 48%-14% advantage over businessman Farouk Shami. Thirty-eight percent of the Democratic sampled ...
Team Kay is on the television airwaves this week with an ad hitting Governor Rick Perry on transportation policy. The latest ad, called "Road Signs", features a giant automated highway marquee sending messages about how Perry would want to turn free roads into toll roads. Watch and see for yourself:
In terms of sheer media production, points to the media folk at Scott Howell and Company from taking a break from the usual voiceover + canned candidate B-roll formula. No gravelly-voiced Texas narrator we tend to hear in these political ads and, if you're sick of seeing Perry and Hutchison's mugs, you'll like it because it's totally free of either candidate's faces.
As for the political weight of the ad, the effectiveness depends on how much the "land grab/Trans-Texas Corridor" issue resonates with voters. The Hutchison campaign maintains that this is an issue it can win on.
The Perry campaign says the ad is devoid of any ideas to fix transportation and that it's factually incorrect.
The spot warns that Perry could turn free roads into a toll roads. To be clearer, no existing LANES of road in Texas have been converted into tolled lanes. But expansions of existing roadways (new lanes) have become tolled after public votes. On the "continuing the Trans-Texas Corridor forever" message, Perry's camp reminds us the TTC -- notably the TTC-35 phase -- is so over.
"The Texas Transportation Commission has also recommended to the Federal Highway Administration that it disapprove construction of the TTC-35," said Perry spokesman Mark Miner, in a statement.
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