Thursday, May 19, 2011

Greater Houston Council Polls on U.S. Senate Candidates

On the heels of a big endorsement announcement by Madison Project of U.S. Senate candidate Ted Cruz,it is apparent that Cruz is a popular candidate with the Republican women in southeast Texas

The Madison Project announcement stated the tough race ahead for the candidates:

This is going to be a long haul for Ted to win this primary-already there are four other high profile candidates in the race with rumors that a fifth will enter within the next few months and the opportunity to elect a solid conservative for the U.S. Senate seat from Texas, vacated by retiring Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Though I do not - DO NOT - agree with this organization's caricature of Senator Hutchison as a "RINO" and do not respect the use of that term by conservatives, I do agree it's a full out competitive race developing. Madison Project describes Cruz as a "comprehensive conservative" and I think that is accurate. He has a record of both fiscal and social conservatism.

The popularity of Cruz with other Republican women is not a surprise to me. I've been to lots of Republican events sponsored by Republican women - particularly in the last three years - and, as a rule, Ted Cruz comes and doesn't just stop by for a few minutes to be introduced as a guest. He stays and shakes hands and answers questions with anyone who comes up to speak with him. He works a room. His wife is a Republican woman and she and Ted are fond of saying they are raising the next generation of Republican women now with their two little daughters.

So, with all this in mind, I was interested to hear the thoughts of other Republican women leaders Tuesday morning as I attended the bi-monthly meeting of Greater Houston Council. Greater Houston Council is an arm of the Texas Federation of Republican Women. It represents Republican women in 40 Republican Women's Clubs in Southeast Texas - in 9 counties: Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Jefferson, Montgomery, Waller, and Walker. Each federated Republican Womens club has two delegates to Greater Houston Council - the club president and another delegate, usually the club vice-president. So, I've been a delegate for three years now. It is a hard working group of women committed to electing Republicans into office in Texas, and at the federal level. Recently, Republican women were credited with being the force behind turning Hardin County into a deeply 'red' county.

The program consisted of taking a poll using a list of characteristics of a candidate. We were asked to score the characteristics from 1 to 12, most important to least, for the U.S. Senate race and then for the candidates for President.

The characteristics were: Tactful/Diplomatic, Communication skills, Persuasive, Understands government, Common sense, Comprehends constituent needs, Ethical, Professional, Sense of humor, Pro family, Moral convictions.

Then we were asked to write down the name of a declared or undeclared Republican candidate for U.S. Senate that we think most embodies these characteristics. The results were:

Ted Cruz 45%
David Dewhurst 36.4%
Elizabeth Ames Jones 9.1%
Michael Williams 3%
Roger Williams 3%
Michael McCaul 3%

The final question had us write down the name of the candidate we think can win against a Democrat. The results were:

David Dewhurst 55.2%
Ted Cruz 27.6%
Michael Williams 13.8%
Tom Leppert 3.4%

Interesting, right?

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