Washington (CNN) - With just over two weeks to go until the March 2 Republican primary in Texas, a new poll suggests that Gov. Rick Perry holds a commanding lead over his two challengers.
According to the survey, conducted by Blum and Weprin Associates for five Texas newspapers, 45 percent of likely GOP voters support Perry's bid for a third full term in Austin. Meanwhile, 29 percent are backing Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and 17 percent favor former Wharton County GOP chairwoman Debra Medina. Also working in Perry's favor: only 8 percent of likely Republican voters are undecided.
But Perry does not have the race locked up. He must surpass the 50 percent threshold to avoid a six-week runoff against the second place finisher and his lead has slipped in recent weeks with the ascendance of the conservative Medina, a latecomer to the race. But Medina's controversial suggestion last week that the U.S. government may have been involved in the September 11 attacks could cause her to bleed support in the final weeks, allowing Perry to cross the 50 percent mark.
The telephone survey was conducted Feb. 2-10, before Medina's controversial remarks on Glenn Beck's radio show.
The poll also surveyed registered voters across the state and found that 53 percent said Texas is headed in the right direction, while 35 percent said the Lone Star state is headed in the wrong direction.
There's also a bit of good news in the data for Texas Democrats. The Democratic frontrunner, former Houston mayor Bill White, only trails Perry by 6 points in a hypothetical general election match-up, and trails Hutchison by only eight points. Still, the electorate appears largely unfamiliar with White: 65 percent of those surveyed had not heard enough about him to form an opinion.
The poll, conducted by telephone, of 1,508 registered Texas voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, while the poll of 464 likely GOP primary voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
From CNN Politics
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Saying anything to get elected is dangerous. This is sad because I believe Kate would have been a more progressive candidate for the state of Texas..
America is at a by pass – looking at the world in the eyes of the progressive thinker where is our future. What kind of future does Perry plan for the citizens of Texas?
Whomever wins this election needs to cut spending and cut taxes and decrease the size of government. This has been a tradition in Texas and a model for other states that have gotten themselves into financial trouble (California, Michigan and Mass).
NOTE TO Republican Women: Republicans don't want conservative and intelligent, well spoken women in positions of power. They want ill informed, former beauty pagent contestants for nothing more that "eye candy." These Republican women are far more qualified than Perry!
We ought to give Texas back to Mexico....
Perry is the governor who threatened to secede from the U.S. last year.
He also blocked investigations into the execution of Willingham, who was executed during Perry's time as governor. Willingham claimed to be innocent, and many fire experts agreed with him, but Perry did nothing to stop it. Most people agree that Perry blocked the investigation to avoid having to explain why Texas put someone to death who was innocent.
Perry is a bad man. I truly hope he does not get elected.
Someone asked on blog on AZ election why there was only mention of the republican candidates. Well, for months that is all we have seen for the majoirity of races. Do you see any mention of a Democrat here?
Of course not. CNN is so biased, supportive of the right we can never expect fair reporting from them.
Just look at their constant pushing Cheney, Palin etc down our throats with headlines. Cheney was in three headlines yesterday. Last one was Cheney/Palin.
At least we know where Fox stands, but CNN tries to hide behind news you can trust, while following in Foxes footsteps.
I wonder how many of these commenters and readers know that Perry was a lifelong Democrat and was a member of the party until the late 1980s, until he realized the only way to get into higher office in Texas was to switch sides.....
Like any bit of truth matters in politics....
I have to go with Medina. She is more in tune with the issues that affect Texas and the right of her citizens. Perry wanted forced vaccinations of an untested HPV drug to all Texas girls. Hutchinson is receiving huge donations from the Texas Loop people. Nope, I gotta go with Medina.
I'm hoping this is a moot point, myself. At this stage, I'm embarrassed to tell anybody I'm from Texas. My current governor doesn't speak to me, nor do any of these other wackjob Texan republicans. I'm voting for Bill White!
What I seriously would like to know , with all the threats of democrats being thrown out on their butts come 2010 and 2012 elections , what makes these people think that the GOP is gonna help them in aany form or way , let me enlighten some of you , because your nothing more than sheep being rounded up for slaughter , If your not in the
1% tax bracket , then you might as well forget about any help from the GOP , so please stop thinking that because a lot of you will vote republican come next election cycle things will better , oh how these Americans have lost their way , I geuss that why some whites think their the oldest race on the planet , and if you believe that then you'll never have a voice in Washington !
If all these candidates, and by extension, redneck Texans (and I love how Dem's like to lecture on the virtue of tolerance) are so idiotic, why does Texas have billions in surplus, the top 5 housing markets in the nation, and one of the lowest unemployment levels in the country? Whereas, these erudite Dem strongeholds like Michigan, California, NJ, and NY are near bankrupt with double digit unemployment and still crashing markets?
Logic is still the enemy of Democrats and their arrogant attitudes.
Shoot,Rick might as well wear a nascar style jumpsuit with all the corporate scumbags names on it.
Yea Andy, Democrats are the party of no and the repubs are all welfare babies
All I can say is this" Texas needs a good Senator, and he does not have to have the big ears like Obama", this Senator just needs to have smarts and be concerned for where this so called president has taken us, we need to cut the drastic spending and we need to have some help with the job of stopping Obama in his tracks. am I the only one out there that seems to think Obama is walking in the footprints of BIG FOOT????? He (Obama) is making such a mess of our country, but, he could never walk away like big foot, we will all be able to tell the truth about a leader that snookered so many americans to vote for him. Shame on ACORN for the dirty way they marred our voting places. We will overcome. Betty
If Perry gets his way and Texas secedes from the US, it will not be a good thing.
The Dems still think they can win in November,my my and with their messiah,Obammie, leading,they will be 1 and done,over,nada,finished.You can lie just so long and then you must answer to the music.Just keep on mummbling your ignorance and spewing your Bush did it ALL the way home.Good riddance morons.
Better than using the tele-promp-ter when giving press-congerences, Pres Obama prefers to give one-on-one media interviews...campaign style and with pre-arranged questions and answers...! Does this mode of communication serve to infrom the people..?
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Palin brought him an audience of 10,000 last week.....
Palin 2012.....:)
The governor who supports death panels ? The one who loves death penalty ? Nothing from a state which is home to George Bush surprises me.