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John Cornyn: Texas Dems’ Favorite Poll Pinata
In the second Democratic poll this week dooming John Cornyn’s Senate career, the numbers tallied by Survey USA showed that 43 percent of Texans approve of the way Cornyn is handling his job, and 40 percent disapprove.
(An earlier poll released by Hamilton Beattie & Staff this week found that 41 percent of Texans had a favorable opinion of Cornyn — but that another 40 percent of the state doesn’t know who he is.)
The one-two punch brought this gleeful response from Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman (and die-hard UT alum) Matthew Miller:
“Cornyn has a statewide name ID roughly competitive with the third string quarterback for the Longhorns.”
Which of course begs the question, does Miller know who Texas’ third-stringer will be this season?
‘Cause if Texas coach Mack Brown knows, he’s not telling (us, at least.) Will it be red-shirt freshman Sherrod Harris, or true freshman John Chiles who will back up Colt McCoy?
The polls draw attention away from the fact that the Texas’ Dems bench so far hasn’t fielded a Cornyn challenger.
Miller suggested that former Texas Comptroller John Sharp is looking into a race, as is Houston attorney Mikal Watts, former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk and State Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston.
Cornyn’s office, slightly annoyed by the second call for a react on poll numbers in a week, especially when the Senator was busy leading reaction to the Iraq War vote, responded with this. It’s an extended version of their response to the week’s earlier Democratic poll:
“It’s a sad sign of disorganized desperation when a political party has to rely on misleading polls and partisan name-calling, in the absence of new ideas or even a candidate to articulate them,” said spokesman Brian Walsh. “This is really nothing more than a transparent attempt to raise Texas trial lawyer money for races in other states, rather than a serious belief by Democrats that they can make Texas competitive in 2008.”
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