I'm finally going to talk about the DMN poll from this weekend. Yeah!
This poll has something that the others haven't had, they ask which Democrat do you prefer in so many words. Chris Bell, my guy, is the clear favorite, even though 60% said they were undecided with the primary less than a month away.
The four-way numbers back that up with Bell getting
Rick Perry: 36%
Chris Bell: 19%
Carole Keeton Strayhorn: 16%
Kinky Friedman: 10%
vs. Gammage's
Rick Perry: 36%
Bob Gammage: 17%
Carole Keeton Strayhorn: 17%
Kinky Friedman: 10%
Friedman supporters seems rock solid at 10%. I say "seem" because I still believe that once November is in sight, those "Independents" will seriously start to rethink voting Kinky. I will predict now that his final vote tally, if he makes it onto the ballot, will be in the neighborhood of half that percentage.
I also think Team Bell is correct when they point out that Strayhorn's support seems to be slipping. Many voters may have jumped on that bandwagon because they saw her as the only candidate with the money and the support to really oust Perry. The problem is that she is a chameleon. She changes her political stripes at the drop of a hat and that makes a lot of voters uneasy.
Add to that the fact that only two candidates have any sort of platform and you really have a two-way race with spoilers making it a murky finish. Just look at what Bell stands for and what Perry stands for and you have a pretty clear picture of the choice facing Texans in November. Gammage seems to be against Perry going to the Caribbean and Bell getting the nomination, and that's it. Strayhorn is against whatever Perry is for, even if she was for it a month ago and Kinky seems to be for the same five one-liners he says on TV and no real policy proposals.
Newspapers know it because they keep endorsing Bell and his ideas for the New Mainstream. The question becomes, when do the other candidates realize they have to be for something and not just against everyone else?
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