Remember in the comics how -- whenever they ran out of ideas -- they'd throw Superman or some other hero into an alternate parallel universe? That memory came instantly to mind when we saw the results of two polls done for the Texas Credit Union League. They hired a Republican pollster to talk to primary voters of the red persuasion and a Democratic pollster to talk to the blues. They found two distinctly different parallel worlds. But first, the news: Republican voters, asked how they'd vote in a primary held today, picked Rick Perry 61 percent of the time, and Carole Keeton Strayhorn 26 percent of the time. Asked how they feel about the two, 79 percent had a somewhat favorable or very favorable impression of Perry, and 50 percent had very or somewhat favorable impressions of Strayhorn. The negatives on Perry's ledger add up to 18 percent with GOP primary voters; Strayhorn's total 25 percent. Put another way, Perry's chum-to-chump ratio is 4-to-1; Strayhorn's is 2-to-1.
Democratic voters, asked how they'd vote in a primary held today, picked Chris Bell 28 percent of the time and Felix Alvarado 15 percent of the time. Most -- 57 percent -- told the pollsters they're undecided. Democrats aren't fond of the governor or of President George W. Bush -- not surprising, since those are Republicans -- but they give another prominent Republican, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, good marks, with 53 percent saying they have a favorable impression of her and 43 percent saying their impression is unfavorable.
The Republican firm of Voter/Consumer Research talked to 400 Texas GOP primary voters October 24-26 and say their margin of error is +/- 4.9 percent. The Democratic pollsters, Hamilton Beattie & Staff, did the same thing: 403 voters, same dates, same margin of error.
The sponsors let us post the polls on the website. Download them from our Files section, at www.texasweekly.com/documents. No password is required in that section.
They didn't ask about general election horse races, but the pollsters found big differences between each party's voters. Lookit:
• Ask Republicans about the direction of the state and 58 percent say it's going in the right direction; 27 percent disagree. Their top issues at the moment, starting at the top of the list: illegal immigration, moral values, education, taxes, health care, the budget deficit, abortion, jobs, political scandals, and growth & congestion. There's a notable drop in interest on the items in that list below taxes. Ask the GOP voters about their top priorities for the Guv and the Legislature and you get this: stopping illegal immigration, improving our schools, reducing property taxes, strengthening families and improving moral values, cutting government spending, and campaign finance reform.
• 64 percent of Texas Democrats -- out of power in every branch of state government and in their federal congressional delegation to boot -- think the state's going the wrong way; 23 percent disagree. Their issues, starting with the highest ranked: education, health care and prescription drug costs, taxes, the budget deficit, illegal immigration, crime and drugs, jobs, the environment, and growth & congestion. The drop in interest in this group was after drug costs.
• Republicans have a marginally good impression of the Legislature: 54 percent have very or somewhat favorable impressions of the people in the statehouse. Those numbers improve if you ask how the Republicans in the Lege are doing instead of just talking generically about the Legislature. Slightly more than half (51%) think their own lawmakers deserve reelection and a third want to give someone else a chance. Democrats do the same thing, giving good numbers to Democrats in the statehouse and lower numbers to the opposition. 42 percent say they'd vote for their incumbent and 27 percent say they'd vote for a challenger.
• Democratic voters told the pollsters they're more interested in results than fights. Only 15 percent listed fighting with the Republican leadership in Austin as one of their top priorities. That ranked behind getting things done, working on public education problems, restoring ethics in government and being bipartisan and getting along with Republicans.
• Ask GOP primary voters about public education and 54 percent say they aren't willing to pay higher taxes for improvements. Another 39 percent say they would be willing. But if they could "do only one of the following," 53 percent said they'd prevent deep cuts in education and 40 percent say they'd want a lawmaker to prevent all tax increases. Half the Democrats -- 49 percent -- say education funding should come from closing loopholes in corporate taxes. After that, 16 percent say wasteful spending should be cut, 13 percent say some form of gambling should be considered, and one in ten say the state should have an income tax. Income taxes finished at 10 percent -- ahead of the 8 percent who said higher sales taxes should be in the mix. Almost three in five Democrats say the state should spend more on public schools; 39 percent say the spending levels are right and that schools should be more accountable about what they spend.
• State funding for protecting borders against terrorism (actually a federal chore) is too low, according to 72 percent of Republican voters. Almost half -- 48 percent -- say funding for public education is too low, but only 16 percent say the state is spending too little on higher education. Two-thirds are happy with current spending on roads and public transportation and 43 percent thing spending on state health care programs is about right. One in five thinks the state is spending too much on colleges and universities, 17 percent think health care spending is too high, and one in ten wants to cut back on public education spending.
• Who do Republicans trust for news? Cable TV, followed by talk radio, broadcast TV, local newspapers, friends and family and the Internet, in that order. Pollster Jan van Lohuizen says the respondents mean Fox News when they say "cable TV" and said that, with only 11 percent saying they trust their local papers, the ink-stained wretches of the world should shiver. Who do the Democrats rely on for news about politics? In order: broadcast news, cable news, and local newspapers.