Texas Republicans Don't Want Perry Either

The other day Texas teabaggers met in Houston and did a straw poll. The teabaggers are Rick Perry's natural base, and his campaigns both for governor and for president have been aimed at pleasing that radical-right group. But currently Perry can't even make any headway with the teabaggers. The straw poll in Texas turned out to be an embarrassment for Perry. He was only able to come in fourth place with 19.4% of the vote (trailing Paul, Gingrich, and Santorum).

But that was an unscientific straw poll and only included the most radical Republicans in the state.However, a more scientific poll has now been taken, and it turns out that Texas Republicans in general don't have any higher opinion of Perry than the teabaggers did. The Public Policy Polling group did a survey of 559 Texas Republicans between January 12th and 15th (with a 4.2% margin of error). It turns out that more than four out of five Texas Republicans would rather have someone other than Rick Perry as the GOP presidential nominee.

In addition, 32% of Texas Republicans disapprove of the job Perry has done as governor and 39% think his presidential campaign has damaged the image of the state of Texas. And even if it was just a two-man race between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, Perry would lose 46% to 45%. It looks like Perry's presidential campaign has not only been disastrous nationwide (he still can't get out of single-digits in South Carolina and Florida polls), but it has also damaged him within his home state. Here are the poll numbers:

Mitt Romney...............24%
Newt Gingrich...............23%
Rick Perry...............18%
Rick Santorum...............15%
Ron Paul...............12%
Buddy Roemer...............0%
Undecided...............9%

NOTE -- Ron Paul doesn't seem to be doing very well in his home state either.

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For those of you who are interested in the Republican race for the senate seat being vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison, PPP also asked the Republicans they polled about that. Here are the numbers for the senate race:

David Dewhurst...............36%
Ted Cruz...............18%
Tom Leppert...............7%
Craig James...............4%
Joe Agris...............2%
Glen Addison...............1%
Lela Pittenger...............1%
Charles Holcomb...............0%
Undecided...............31%

That has to be a slap in the face for Craig James. I think he believed his football fame and ESPN exposure would make him an instant contender, but it doesn't seem to have done him any good at all. In addition, James only has an 11% favorable rating and a 19% unfavorable rating (while 69% say they are unsure). We're still at least two and a half months away from the Texas primary (currently scheduled for April 3rd), but so far it looks like Ted Cruz is the only candidate with a chance of beating the current Lt. Governor, David Dewhurst.