New Polls Show Toss-ups for Governor in Texas, California, and Florida

New polls show toss-ups in gubernatorial races in three large, Republican-held states: Texas, California, and Florida. Even in a bad year, we could pick up some pretty big prizes.

A new Rasmussen poll released today shows incumbent Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) leading former Houston Mayor Bill White (D) by just four points, 48-44. The poll remains virtually unchanged from a month ago, when Perry led White 49-43.

What shocks me most about this poll, however, isn’t that White is within striking distance of beating Perry – it’s that Perry has a favorable rating of 59%. Governor Good Hair, he of the forced HPV vaccinations and unwanted freeway, the same one who was re-elected with just 39% of the vote in 2006 and has since struggled to get back to 50%. And yet despite that astonishing 59% approval rating, he can’t crack 50 in the polls and leads White by just four points. It helps that White is such an excellent challenger, known for his remarkable handling of Hurricane Katrina and his ability to please virtually everyone while Mayor of Houston.

California is another possible flip – an online poll from the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal showed last week that Democrat Jerry Brown leads Republican Meg Whitman 44-43. This is in line with the Real Clear Politics average, which gives Whitman a 43-42 lead (with no polls in April). An online survey usually isn’t anything notable, but it’s the first anything out of California in several weeks and it does say the same thing as other polls.

http://mydd.com/2010/4/19/new-polls-show-toss-ups-for-governor-in-texas-california-and-florida?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mydd+%28MyDD%29

Meg Whitman and Steve Poisner have yet to have their primary. Its been hysterical watching them out-Conservative each other. All Jerry Brown has to do at this point is watch them shoot their wads of cash.

, Bill McCollum. Former Clinton impeachment mangager... :grr: McCollum is a WEAK candidate who has lost a number of statewide races before finally winning a seat as Attorney General.

because the democrats ran a candidate less well known and apparently slightly less charimatic. It is a tough task to even find someone with less charisma than McCollum, but somehow they managed it. In that Alex Sink has more charisma than a stone and will run an actual campaign against him, I don't see McCollum winning.

This race has not even gotten started yet. Once the Senate race has played out, with Crist running as an (I), then people will start focusing on the Gov race. I think McCollum jump the shark when he sued over the Health Care. Just my take.

I think will cost him.

Not to mention his toad-like charisma... no insult intended to our amphibian friends, but he really does look like a toad.

haha that lawsuit vs "ObamaCare" is biting him in the arse.

after Arnold and his dismal record as Governor

This year will be one in which incumbents are on the block. That is not good for Dems in Congress, so they must fight back. As for Governors, flipping those states would be a good pickup heading into the 2012 election.

and the state is in the toilet, yet other recent poll by PPP show Brown behind Whitman--where Brown just a few months ago had a double digit lead. I still can't understand why we are recycling Jerry Brown at 72 years old and not trying to come up with a younger governor who has some staying power.

One of the side effects of term limits, IMHO, is that pols play musical offices, moving from one position to another when they're termed out rather than developing a strong, state-wide base: two terms than on to the next slot. Sure, it sounded like a good idea at the time, but what's happened is that the bureaucracy just became entrenched in a slightly different way, since people tend to vote on name recognition, and I don't think it's been good for the state in the long run.

So we're left with old party hacks (Brown) or people with enough money of their own to spend themselves into recognition (Whitman and Poisner). Neither party seems to be developing young statewide talent.