Perry polling

Governor Perry has achieved majority approval (barely), but is still the least liked statewide officeholder in Texas.

The Scripps Howard Texas Poll found 51 percent of the Texans surveyed said Perry is doing a good job as governor while 33 percent disapprove of his job performance. That is in marked contrast to a year ago, when half the Texans surveyed disapproved of Perry as governor.

The poll also shows strength for Perry among his own partisans. Among Republicans, 73 percent approved of the job Perry is doing as governor.

That's definitely an improvement over the fifty one percent approval among Republicans Perry reportedly had last May. Going through my archives, I see a reference to 74% GOP approval from the fall of 2003, and 64% GOP approval in the summer of that year. Some of the fluctuations may be due to sample size issues and polling methods; it's hard for me to say. Byron, who has some more numbers, thinks Perry's resurgence is due in part to his being out of the news lately. I tend to agree, and think this is his natural peak. That said, some good results from the 79th Lege could do wonders for him.

As for the others, it's pretty clear that KBH is very popular, and that a lot of people don't know much about anybody else. Note also that President Bush's disapproval rating matches Perry's at 33% while his approval rating is 61%, ten points better than the Governor. For sure he's got better numbers among Republicans, and probably equal totals among Democrats. That may yet mean there's room for Perry to go up, but his history suggests otherwise. In the end, of course, there's only one poll that matters. We'll see what happens.

UPDATE: PerryVsWorld has some thoughts on this as well.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on February 18, 2005 to Show Business for Ugly People | TrackBack