2010: Poll-Land

A new political survey says Gov. Rick Perry is  beating Democrat Bill White in the governor's race, but also shows the incumbent is unpopular with half of likely Texas voters and that the same percentage of voters support a two-term limit for governors.

Perry has a 48-42 lead over White, according to a new Public Policy Polling survey. Most polls over the summer had the Republican in the lead, but a couple of recent surveys had the two contenders in a statistical tie. The same firm behind this new poll released a survey in June that had the candidates locked in a tie.

According to PPP's newest poll, 50 percent of voters disapprove of Perry's performance, while 39 percent approve.  White's fans outnumber his detractors 44-29 percent. White is beating Perry among independent voters, according to this poll, but there aren't enough independents and Democrats to outnumber the Republicans who overwhelmingly support Perry.

In the only other race included in the poll, Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst holds a 54-34 advantage over Democrat Linda Chavez-Thompson.

The automated telephone survey of 538 likely voters was run September 2-6 and has a margin of error of +/- 4.2 percent.

Earlier this week, a survey done for Texas Watch by Hill Research Consultants had Perry and White just a point apart. Jim Henson and Adam Myers of the University of Texas pulled together the results of all the publicly available polls done so far this year, and our Matt Stiles put it into this interactive chart:

The difference between this chart and the one at the top? This one shows the results of each poll, without regard to when they were taken. The one at the top shows the results by date, which illustrates variations in polls done at about the same time.