Houston lawyer Chris Bell, the Democrats' 2006 nominee, was favored by 22 percent of Democratic primary voters. Tony Sanchez of Laredo, the Dems' '02 nominee, drew 15 percent; former state Comptroller John Sharp got 13 percent; and Bill White, the Houston mayor who might run for governor, won 12 percent.
Friedman, who placed fourth running as an independent last year, was favored by 9 percent of Democratic primary voters.
The poll has quite a few independents included in it, so I'd be his numbers are even lower among actual Democratic primary voters. Kinky is a joke and always has been.
The poll also asked questions about the death penalty, and found some misgivings: 42 percent of all voters favored abolishing the death penalty, with 47 percent of all voters opposing abolition. Forty-eight percent said the death penalty is totally morally acceptable, with 31 percent rating it morally wrong.
79 percent of all the polled voters said they are concerned about the possibility that the state is executing some innocent people. Forty-five percent of all voters were very concerned.
44 percent of voters said they preferred life without parole as the punishment for people convicted of murder, and 30 percent favored the death penalty. Fourteen percent chose life with a chance of parole.
If a candidate were to run on abolishing the death penalty, 46 percent of all the polled voters would likely support them, 37 percent would not likely support them, and 17 percent said either it depends or did not know/refused to answer.
55 percent agreed that a disproportionate or unfair number of poor people are on death row, 21 percent disagreed and 23 percent did not know or refused to answer.
54 percent agreed that if Texas abolished the death penalty but remained tough on crime, the state would be sending a message to the nation that killing is wrong no matter whether a person or government does the killing; 33 percent disagreed.
But again, this is only Democrats and independents, so it ignores Republican support for the death penalty.
2 comments:
Screw Kinky!
I think while Republicans may favor the death penalty more, I don't think most of them favor it and disregard the danger of killing innocent people. I think even true believers have been shaken up by all the exonerations that have been occurring recently, and those are only the cases where DNA evidence can be brought to bear. There are still a lot of dubious cases out there. I think as long as you make the argument that the death penalty is too risky rather than talk about the sanctity of life for criminals, you still have a fair chance of winning the conservatives over on that score.
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