New: see the More Info box on the lower right side of the page to download summary results and methodological information on the national Money and Politics poll directed by Brian Roberts and Daron Shaw of the UT-Austin Department of Government. The poll, one of the only national surveys to assess public opinion in the US on campaign finance and political corruption, was conducted in conjunction with the Center for Politics and Governance's Fall Forum, held on the UT - Austin campus November 16.

In the October UT-Austin/Texas Tribune Poll: Governor Perry appears to be leading Senator Hutchison in the Republican Primary as Texans remain focused on economy and on a different page than Washington.

The results of the first UT/Texas Tribune poll shows Texans remaining negative about the economy and slowly turning their attention to the 2010 elections. A sizable share of those surveyed were also intensely disapproving of the direction of the federal government. The survey was in the field from October 20-27 and sampled 800 Texans who identified themselves as registered voters, producing a margin of error of +/- 3.46 percentage points.

Republicans appear to be getting more engaged with the marquee primary race for governor between Governor Rick Perry and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Perry leads by 12 points (42-30), just outside the 5.14 point margin of error for the Republican Primary voter sub-sample. More significant than the gap between the candidates, which has swung back and forth over the past nine months, is the drop in the number of undecided voters. At 18%, the percentage of those who have yet to make up their minds has dropped ten points since our June survey. Debra Medina, seeking to carry the mantle of the Tea Party-ers, runs a distant third with 7%.

The Democratic race continues to be marked by a lack of engagement and enthusiasm for the top contests. More than half of those planning on voting in the Democratic primary (55%) haven't settled on a choice. Kinky Friedman's first-place finish with 18% probably testifies to his name recognition, while Tom Schieffer garners 10% of the vote.

Senator Hutchison's continued occupancy of her Senate seat, without any assured exit plan, means that the potential race to replace her has yet to draw voters' attention -- or at least their commitment to any of the prospective candidates. As in our June survey, the number of undecided voters is still large. Houston Mayor Bill White appears to have made some head-way -- he trailed John Sharp and David Dewhurst in June, and now runs neck and neck with Dewhurst at 13% (Sharp garners 10% this time around). All three are well within the margin of error here, and nobody is really making the needle jump. The other candidates all remain in low single figures. The small number of observations in the results for each candidate doesn't allow us to make reliable candidate comparisons, but the results tentatively suggest that White is doing better with weak and leaning Democrats and independents, while Sharp and White are splitting the strong Democrats.

In a series of hypothetical match-ups against prominent Democratic candidates, Hutchison runs stronger than Perry across the board: nine points stronger against Tom Schieffer, five points stronger against Kinky Friedman, and seven points stronger against Ronnie Earle. Both Republican candidates, however, register double-figure advantages in all of these hypothetical head to heads.

When Senator Hutchison and Governor Perry were matched with an unnamed "Democratic nominee," Senator Hutchison topped a generic Democrat by 11 points (36-25), while Governor Perry edged the unnamed Democrat by only 1 point. Respondents probably wish to keep an open mind at this point, and in all of these hypothetical races more than a third of the respondents either didn't know or opted for an unknown third party candidate.

In questions asking about vote choice in Congressional and state legislative elections, Republicans enjoyed a nine-point advantage in the Congressional match up, but only a six-point lead in state legislative races. That this passes for good news is commentary on the tough sledding for Democrats, although it does reinforce the continuing improvement in their legislative race competitiveness seen over the past two cycles.

This was the first in a series of polls to be undertaken in collaboration with The Texas Tribune. For additional analysis and commentary, see their "Polling Center" section.