HUFFPOLLSTER: Texas 2014 Races Don’t Look Too Competitive, Poll Finds

A new poll in Texas shows that the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate is not very close, and that the GOP candidate for governor has a comfortable early lead in the general election. Chris Christie’s popularity in New Jersey is still going down. And watching live TV is going down like a house of cards. Today is Monday, February 24, 2014, and this is HuffPollster.

ABBOTT LEADS DAVIS BY 11 IN Ross Ramsey is from Texas. “After what looks like easy primary wins in March for the leading candidates for governor, the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll gives Republican Greg Abbott an 11-point lead over Democrat Wendy Davis in the race for governor in November. In the race for governor, Abbott would beat Davis 47 percent to 36 percent if the general election were held today. However, 17 percent of registered voters haven’t decided yet who they will vote for. Jim Henson, co-director of the poll and head of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, said, “We’ve been talking about whether anything would be different since the beginning of this race, and we’re not seeing anything that’s different.” People talked about how Davis did better in our last poll, but that was partly due to her rise in the fall, and now we’re seeing a return to the normal pattern.” (The Texas Tribune)

Cornyn is way ahead of Stockman – More from Ramsey: “In his bid for re-election, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn ran against seven other Republicans in the Republican primary. Of the likely Republican primary voters, 62 percent voted for Cornyn, and 16 percent voted for U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Friendswood. The rest got less than ten percent of the vote.” The primary election in Texas will take place on March 4. [ibid]

The number of people in New Jersey who like Christ keeps going down. – Monmouth County: “Since the Bridgegate emails were made public last month, people have even less respect for Chris Christie. The governor’s job approval rating has dropped 20 points over the past year, according to a poll by Monmouth University and the Asbury Park Press. New Jerseyans think Christie’s handling of the recovery from Superstorm Sandy is a lot worse than they did when he was running for re-election. This is because more and more people think he had something to do with the toll lane closures. Since [a January poll taken right after the scandal broke], his approval rating has dropped by 9 points “Since last month, Christie’s approval rating among Republicans has dropped by 12 points, among independents by 8 points, and among Democrats by 7 points… The Bridgegate scandal isn’t helped by the fact that the mayor of Hoboken says the governor’s office held back Sandy aid until a development project in that town that had nothing to do with Sandy was approved. Nearly eight out of ten (79%) New Jersey residents have heard about this claim, and most of them are more likely to believe (49%) than doubt (40%) what the mayor of Hoboken says. [Monmouth]

POLL SHOWS VOTERS WATCHING LESS LIVE T.V. – A new survey by Public Opinion Strategies (R) and Global Strategy Group (D), which was paid for by Google and digital consulting firms Well & Lighthouse (D) and Targeted Victory (R), shows that voters are giving up live TV in favour of streaming shows and movies on their smartphones or tablets. Emily Schulteis: “29 percent of voters said that, other than watching live sports, they hadn’t watched any live TV in the past week. This number is even higher for people under 30: 43 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds haven’t watched any live TV in the past week, and the same is true for 40 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds. It’s also higher in key demographic and ideological groups: 38 percent of self-described independents and 32 percent of moderates and 36 percent of Hispanic voters said they hadn’t watched live TV in the past week. The poll shows that voters are getting their political information in different ways, and it suggests that campaigns that only advertise on broadcast TV will miss out on important and growing groups of voters. From January 25-28, 2014, 800 likely voters were interviewed by phone. Thirty percent of the interviews were done on voters’ cell phones. [Politico, POS slide deck]

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