TX-22: This one may not be over yet
by kos
Mon Oct 30, 2006 at 10:41:26 AM PDT
Zogby for Houston Chronicle/11 News. 10/23-25. Likely voters. MoE 4.5% (No trend lines)
If the election for Congress were held today and the candidates were Democrat Nick Lampson, Libertarian M. Bob Smither, and a "write-in candidate", for whom would you vote?
Write-in 35
Lampson (D) 36
Smither (L) 4
(If write-in) Whose name would you write-in? Shelley-Sekula Gibbs, Don Richardson. Joe Reasbeck, or Someone else? [Rotated]
Sekula-Gibbs 79
Other/not sure 21
If the election for Congress were held today and the candidates were Democrat Nick Lampson, Republican Shelley Sekula Gibbs, and Libertarian M. Bob Smither, for whom would you vote?
Sekula-Gibbs (R) 52
Lampson (D) 35
Smither (L) 5
About two-thirds of voters in the suburban Houston district know how to do that and are aware of a write-in candidacy, the poll shows.
"This is why we have elections and we don't have talking heads decide in May who the winners are going to be," said pollster John Zogby, president of Zogby International, which conducted the poll last week."Punditry was coloring the district blue. It's still a Republican district. Even harder than selling a write-in, is selling a Democrat in this district."
Fifty-two percent of poll respondents identified themselves as Republicans, 32 percent as Democrats and 16 percent as independent.
There are two differences in the poll methodology and real life --
1) going into the booth, no one will be listing Sekula-Gibbs as a write-in option. Voters will have to remember the name; and
2) the ballot WILL list Sekula-Gibbs -- as an option in a same-ballot special election to fill the remainder of Tom DeLay's term. People might think voting for her in that special election is enough and forget to write in her name in the general election portion of the ballot.
Regardless, nothing is over until it's over. That's why we can't celebrate anything yet.
On the web: Nick Lampson for Congress
Race tracker wiki: TX-22
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