Whether he crosses the 50% threshold or is forced into a run-off when the polls close next Tuesday, the results of the last UT/Texas Tribune Poll suggest that Rick Perry’s synchronous orbit over a big chunk of the Republican primary electorate has helped him prove many observers โ not to mention KBH boosters and donors โ very wrong.
Jim Henson
Jim Henson directs the Texas Politics Project and teaches in the Department of Government at The University of Texas, where he also received a doctorate. He helped design public interest multimedia for the Benton Foundation in Washington, D.C., in the late 1990s and has written about politics in general-interest and academic publications. He also serves as associate director of the College of Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services unit at UT, where he has helped produce several award-winning instructional media projects. In 2008, he and Daron Shaw, a fellow UT government professor, established the first statewide, publicly available internet survey of public opinion in Texas using matched random sampling. He lives in Austin, where he also serves as a member of the City of Austin Ethics Review Commission.
The Polling Center: First Take on the February 2010 Results
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.
The Polling Center: White Count
If President Obamaโs ratings are looking a little anemic among whites nationally, they are in need of an emergency leukocyte transfusion in Texas.
The Polling Center: Debatable
Are the Republican candidates for governor in line with voters on issues? We’ll find out tonight.
The Polling Center: Indirect Soundings on Ronnie Earle
Is retired Travis County D.A. Ronnie Earle โ who talked about running for governor and then filed for lieutenant governor โ a strong statewide candidate?
The Polling Center: Lubbock Poll or Leave It? Leave It.
The only thing definitively in the weeds here is the reliability of this poll.
The Polling Center: KBH in the (Tumble) Weeds in Lubbock County
Not many local polls have been made public, but this one confirms the rumor mill: One, Rick Perryโs lead in conservative areas of the state is a few points above what the UT/Trib poll found statewide. And, two, the impression that, as of now, the Kay Bailey Hutchison campaign is floundering if it’s really trying to peel conservative voters away from Perry in significant numbers.
The Polling Center: Public Option, Universal Coverage Divide Texans
In the health care debate, universal coverage has significant if not overwhelming support, but is also marked by pronounced partisan differences, and Texans appeared truly split down the middle on the โpublic option.โ
The Polling Center: Agreeing on Bad News
The polarization was striking: 80% of Texas Democrats were worried about staying too long in Afghanistan, while 76% of Texas Republicans were worried about leaving Afghanistan too soon. In the comparable national poll question, there was a notable but less striking split, with 61% of Democrats choosing a smaller increase, with 65% calling for a larger increase.
The Polling Center: Full Crosstabs
Full crosstabs for the University of Texas/Texas Tribune October 2009 statewide survey are presented in two documents: one for the main data set and another for a supplemental dataset of reinterviews for the Democratic gubernatorial primary race.Crosstabs are presented by party identification (PIDLean), race, gender, age, and education level. The PIDLean variable includes respondents who […]

