Gubernatorial Removal of Political Appointees

The October 2009 poll results suggest that Texans are somewhat aware of Governor Perry removing certain appointed officials, and that their reactions to this controversy vary by partisanship. Without specifically naming Perry or the controversies at hand, the survey asked respondents if they felt it was appropriate for the governor to remove his own appointees for political reasons. By a 2-to-1 margin (52%-26%), the "no" response was more popular than the "yes" response ("don't know" came in third). When cross-tabulated by party, results show that Democratic identifiers overwhelmingly do not believe it is appropriate for a governor to remove his own appointments for political reasons, while Republican identifiers are more evenly divided but are slightly more likely to choose the "no" response as well.

The specific wording of the item as follows:

"The Texas Constitution grants the Governor the power to appoint individuals to many boards and commissions. Do you believe that that it is appropriate for the Governor to remove these individuals for political reasons?"

Children's Health Insurance

Registered voters are largely supportive of expanding the Texas Children's Health Insurance Program, with the caveat that families enrolling in the program should be required to pay a share of its costs. Thirty-sveen percent of Texans strongly support expansion of the program, and an additional 41% somewhat support it.

Energy Policy

In the realm of energy policy, 68% of respondents expressed some level of support for a hypothetical state government mandate requiring that new homes, commercial buildings, and industrial plants be more energy efficient. This is somewhat surprising in that a plurality of respondents polled also expressed opposition to the cap-and-trade energy bill being debated at the federal level.

Redistricting

Consistent with previous poll results, a large plurality of respondents supports the creation of an independent commission to handle the decennial redrawing of congressional and state legislative district lines. Forty-eight percent of respondents answered that they support the creation of such a commission, while 21% of respondents were opposed and 32% of respondents answered "don't know."