Rice-run poll: Parker leads Locke by 13 percent as Houston mayoral election nears

CONTACT: Franz Brotzen
PHONE: 713-348-6775
E-MAIL: franz.brotzen@rice.edu

Rice-run poll: Parker leads Locke by 13 percent as Houston mayoral election nears

With
two days till election day, a poll conducted by Rice University’s
Center for Civic Engagement shows City Controller Annise Parker with a
13 percentage point lead over former City Attorney Gene Locke. Parker
has the support of 49 percent of respondents to Locke’s 36 percent.
Fifteen percent said they are unsure whom they will support.

The
poll is based on interviews with 442 registered voters in the city of
Houston between Dec. 7 and 9. It has an error rate of plus or minus 4.7
percent. It was prepared for KHOU-TV and KUHF-FM.

Parker opened her lead by appealing to voters concerned
about taxes and the economy, said Robert Stein, Rice’s Lena Gohlman Fox
Professor of Political Science, who oversaw the poll. She has also been
able to identify her campaign with the popular outgoing mayor, Bill
White, Stein added. Although White, who cannot seek re-election because
of term limits, has not formally endorsed either candidate, “he has not
distanced himself from Parker,” Stein said.

More than half of
the survey’s respondents were white (53 percent), 29 percent
African-American, 10 percent Hispanic, 4 percent Asian and 4 percent
“other.” Democrats made up a large plurality with 48 percent, compared
with Republicans (29 percent) and independents (23 percent).

While
Locke’s campaign has had success in generating a large turnout during
the early voting period that ended Dec. 8, Parker has increased her
standing among white Republicans and Democrats, Stein said. Parker
leads among Republican voters 55 percent to 29 percent. Locke leads
among Democrats 51 percent to 41 percent, but Parker has a significant
lead among independents (58 percent to 17 percent).

Parker and
Locke face each other in a Dec. 12 runoff after emerging from the Nov.
3 first-round election as the top two voter-getters.

The poll data can be viewed at http://ccrd.rice.edu/Mayor-2009/.

The University of Houston Center for Public Policy Survey Research Institute assisted with the research.