June 27, 2008
New
Poll Shows England and Wiegman
Neck-and-Neck in State House Campaign
By
Mike Hailey
Capitol
Inside Editor
State Rep. Kirk England of Grand
Prairie won his first full term in 2006 when he
beat a Democratic opponent by 235 votes out of
more than 21,000 that were cast in the race. England
had 49 percent of the vote while Katy
Hubener claimed 48 percent in a rematch
of a special election battle that he'd won earlier
that year in House District 106.
England is running for re-election as a Democrat
after switching parties last fall - and according
to a new poll - the HD 106 race is a lot closer
in 2008 than it turned out to be two years ago.
The Texas
Poll Watch poll - in fact - shows that it's
tied.
The IVR poll of 371 HD 106 residents on Wednesday
found England and Republican Karen Wiegman
deadlocked with 41.51 percent each. Almost 12
percent were undecided while 5.4 percent favored
Libertarian candidate Gene Freeman
in the race for the HD 106 seat. The poll has
a margin of error of 5.1 percent.
England, who's been generally viewed as the favorite
in a GOP-leaning district that's been trending
Democrat, said he thinks the new poll is "a
joke" based on what he's heard about the
polling firm's credentials and what he knows about
the race. But Wiegman's camp sees the new poll
as a sign that the HD 106 race will be competitive
and that the incumbent is vulnerable.
Texas Poll Watch is a relatively new Austin-based
firm that's conducted surveys on several legislative
and local races. One of its founders is Mark
Littlefield, a former campaign manager
for Democratic State Rep. Patrick Rose
of Dripping Springs. Littlefield and Rose parted
ways two years ago after the consultant was accused
of improper activity in connection with an Austin
Community College petition drive. While Littlefield
has been associated with Democrats in the past,
the firm has conducted its polls independently
without being hired by any of the candidates in
the races that it's surveyed. But most of the
criticism that the firm has received so far has
come from Democrats who don't like the results
of the surveys it's done.
England said he considers a recent poll of the
HD 106 race by a fifth-grade class at an elementary
school in his district to be more credible than
the professional survey that was taken this week.
The school poll showed England leading Wiegman
by 57 percent to 43 percent.
England, the son of Grand Prairie's longtime
mayor, said he's "absolutely" confident
that he'll be re-elected. The lawmaker said that
he lost eight out of 895 core supporters in the
wake of the party switch last fall. But he added
that six of the supporters he lost initially are
back in the fold now.
Cory Kennedy, a consultant for
Wiegman, said the new poll indicates that independent
voters appear to be dissatisfied with incumbents
in general and that England still isn't popular
with all Democrats in a district where he was
elected twice as a Republican in the past two
years.
Wiegman is a former Grand Prairie school board
member who lost a re-election bid in 2006. England
won the HD 106 initially when he defeated Hubener
in a special election early that year with 53
percent of the vote. The GOP's statewide candidates
claimed 55 percent of the vote in HD 106 two years
ago when the Democrats fielded one of its weakest
slates in modern time. The HD 106 seat had been
in the Republican column since 1993 before England
converted to the Democrats in September.
Democrats, who've taken control of Dallas County
in recent years, are hoping that candidates like
England will get a significant boost from White
House nominee Barack Obama in
contested down-ballot races in major metropolitan
areas like Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston.
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