Election Day is now just a month away, and early voting starts even sooner — in two weeks.
The biggest race in Texas is the battle for the governor's mansion, and a new poll shows Republican incumbent Rick Perry has hit that magic number of 50 percent.
The WFAA-Belo Texas Poll shows half of likely voters surveyed by Public Strategies support Perry over Democratic challenger Bill White in Perry's bid to become the longest-serving governor in state history.
It's almost a similar picture here in North Texas, with Perry leading White 48 to 34 percent.
The WFAA-Belo Texas Poll gives Perry his widest margins yet over Bill White as Perry's message lines up with voters' main concern.
"Gov. Perry starts out this campaign with a big advantage, and that is — counter to the rest of the nation — a majority of Texans think the state is headed in the right direction," said Public Strategies pollster David Iannelli.
The poll by Public Strategies, a business communications firm, found 52 percent believe the state is headed in the right direction while 36 percent say it's not.
The most important issue to likely voters is the economy and jobs, followed by immigration/border security and education. On those issues, they told us they believe Perry would do a better job.
"I think it all goes back to the economy, and where things are in Texas at this point in time," Iannelli said.
As the state's longest-serving governor, voters know Perry, and that includes controversial decisions he's made that political opponents this year have spent millions and millions of dollars hammering him on in TV commercials.
Yet the WFAA-Belo Texas Poll found 56 percent have a favorable view of Perry. Forty-six percent view White favorably and 32 percent give him unfavorable marks.
With a month to go, the poll shows White must persuade voters things are not so good in Texas.
"As long as the state is viewed as headed in the right direction, Perry has the advantage," Iannelli said.
The poll shows the ironic difference between the abstract and reality. While likely voters prefer Perry for a third full term, two-thirds of them favor term limits.
E-mail bwatson@wfaa.com
Public Strategies conducted a statewide telephone poll of 1,000 registered voters in Texas September 27-October 2, 2010 on behalf of BELO. The sample included 704 likely voters – those who say they vote in “most” or “all” school, local and primary elections. The margin of error for random sample of 704 likely voters is ±3.7 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence interval.
To ensure the sample was representative of the population of Texas, weights were applied to the full sample on gender, age, ethnicity and party affiliation. All respondents were screened to ensure they are registered voters. To filter for likely voters, respondents were also screened to ensure they vote in most or all school, local and primary elections.
