Texas' Leading Newspaper Dallas, Texas, Sunday, February 16, 1986 ,Thr Wiles Worstag Sees, MA 21 Sections 75 Cents Texas Poll puts White barely ahead of Clements By Sam Attlesey pobitcat Wnter of The News e1-11W YOnnirlteprMICtItO f515V-. giU Clements Is running virtu- filly dead even with Gov. Mark) Fhite in his.ccusaharishieLtsualcapi re the Cover sot's "Min or—ff.-MD ciarding to a special texas Poll) In. a heads-up rematch of the combatants from the bitter 1982 governor's race, the poll indicated White was barely leading Clements, 43 percent to 41 percent, with 16 percerrt undecided. Democrat White, however, far outdistanced the other two Republi- can contenders: U.S. Rep. Tom Loef- fler of Hunt and former U.S. Rep. Kent Hance of Lubbock. White led Loeffler, 47 percent to 27 percent, and Hance, 46 percent to 34 percent, according to the poll. The poll also indicated that 42 percent of the Texans surveyed be- lieved White was doing an excel- lent or good job as governor, and 53 percent believed he was doing ei- ther a fair or poor job. "He's not real strong, but he's not in real bad shape either," con- cluded poll director James Dyer. The special Texas Poll was con- ducted by the Public Policy Re- sources Laboratory at Texas A&M University for The Dallas Morning News, Harte-Hanks Communica- lions Inc.. and KTRK-TV in Houston. It was based on a telephone sur- vey of 1,000 adult Texans. inter- viewed throughout the state be- tween Jan. 24 and Feb. 6. The margin of error of a 1.000- person sample is plus or minus three percentage points. However, the margin increases as the size of the sub-group samples becomes smaller. torrlinCrIZEZTI=Fre 7"g-i 'ti - on iiicaTnst WIiIiEll-bier said) White and Cements have equal pa: 'fives. But White's witgatixas,azz: kagiggligarjazilwil "That is extremely good news," said Clements, who was ousted from the governor's office by White in 1982 "We're in a heads-up situation," the Republican said. White did not wish to comment on the poll, according to his cam- paign press spokesman Mark McKinnon, However, White's campaign manager, Dwayne Holman, said the special poll "indicates that Gov. White is in good shape, and Texans approve of the job he's doing for the state." "I believe that you will find that as the issues and candidates become more clearly defined that the gover- nor's ratirrg will continue to im- prove," lioltaan said. According to the poll. White was recognized by 94 percent of those surveyed and Clements by almost 90 percent. Hance had a name identification of almost 54 percent, and Loeffler had 40 percent, according to the poll Hance and Loeffler were not tested directly against Cements. TEXAS POLL Job approval rating of Gov. Mark White 33.2% 30.4% , 9.0% White in the November general election "If I had not believed that." Clements said, "I wouldn't be in the race" White's job approval rating has been "on a holding pattern" since a similar Texas Poll in mid-October, Dyer said. In the fall survey, 5 percent of those interviewed thought White was doing an excellent job, and 31 percent said he was doing a good job. In the latest survey, 9 percent said White was doing an excellent job and 33 percent said he was doing a good job. The fall poll indicated that 52 percent of the Texans interviewed felt White was doing either a poor or fair job. And the latest poll indi- cated that 53 percent believed he 23.1% was doing either a poor or fair job. The special Texas Poll indicated that White, when matched with the three Republican candidates, ex- hibited strength among the "less well-educated," newcomers to the 4.3% Pon nas • rnarcnn of error of pet or mews three percentage txwsts SOURCE' PubliC Pohcy Resources laboratory at Texas A& M University state, young people, liberals, blacks, Hispanics, Catholics and lower in- come Texans. The Dallas Morning News But Dyer said the poll indicated that "all things being equal, Clements should come out of the primary in good shape." "Re has high name recognition," Dyer said, "and almost all of his negative evaluations come from the Democrats." Rance, saying he was satisfied with his showing in the poll, said that "all it would take for a good campaign manager is 10 days to raise Clements' negatives back up to 40 percent or more" from his cur- rent 2I3 percent. The poll "reconfirms that we're on the right kra,71( .. 12 points be- hind White 10 inonths before the election," he said. "That's a piece of cake." Loeffler said the poll results put his campaign "precisely where we had hoped to be at this point "We're 21/2 months out for the Republican primary, and that's the first hurdle I've got to cross. And I full well intend to," Loeffler said. "As the one fresh, new face on the political scene statewide in this race, we've come a long way, and we're in excellent position to win." said Loeffler, who is making his first statewide race. In 1978, Clements became the first Republican to serve as Texas governor since Reconstruction. Hance unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in 1984 then switched to the Republican Party in 1985. Despite the optimism of Hance and Loeffler, Clements said the spe• cial poll convinced him more than ever that he was the Republican with the hest shot at defeating Geographically, according to the survey, White was strongest in the urban areas, in Central and South Texas and in the Gulf Coast region, including his hometown of Hous- ton. White has more negatives than positives in North, East and West Texas, the poll indicated. Clements, the retired Dallas oil- man who now describes himself as a farmer, ran stronger in North and East Texas than in any other areas of the state, the poll indicated. Although both Hance and Loef- fler have hinted that there is a "negative" hangover from Clements' tenure as governor from 1979 to 1983. Dyer said the latest poll did not support those claims. flgiTaie: positives- ,smong- rnsans," Dyer said; adding tha, 'hite has great.a-DtgaIlvitUana m ocrats t ha tf"Tleibentr—LtEt, mon e I:Means "But White has more positives among Republicans than Clements does among Democrats," Dyer said On Clements' image, Dyer said, "He has been out of office long enough that some of the negative image may have melted into his- tory 11 is my suspicion," he said, "that the Irascibility that some fouria irritating wasn't really that much of a problem." Dyer also said that "there is no evidence that Hazes has any better ability than the miser Republicans to pi, k up Democratie votes." 0:ie of Hance's major campaign thethes has been that he has the best chance of any of the three Re- publicans to defeat White on Nov 4 because he has broadest appeal among conservative Democrats. But in a matchup against White, Hance got 23 percent of the Demo- cratic vote, according to the survey. Clements got 26 percent, and Loef- fler got 18 percent. The margin of error increases among smaller groups such as the Texans who identified themselves as Democrats. For the group of 323 Texans who identified themselves as Democrats, the margin of error is plus or minus 7 percentage points. Of the 1,000 Texans surveyed. 115 percent identified themselves as in- dependents, 32 percent as Demo- crats and 26 percent as Republicans "Clements is looking very good right now," Dyer said. "A race between White and Clements is close," he concluded. "Since Democratic support tends to be concentrated among those less likely to turn out, it is likely that CititiCULS leads White at thi - moment." "In any case, it is likely to,bt a good race." • • • .• , GRAT)ING.THE CANDIDATES , . r".", 7- r• t't 4+. t: 7:he Diille.s.Morrili4 Pieri.;'..KTFIK -TV tad Ha Ha Communication trIc..0611ticalPpikg MARK WHITE PerCent 35 40.7 5.4 .2 • "4 • .e "4`..- • TOM LOEFFLER PerOWIt 19.512.7 7.3 60.1 .4 ANDREW BRISCOE Peroint 52 24 9,7 rm 13 am 0 ;MI BILL CLEMENTS PerCent 39.4 28.5 f7 21.5 t: 1 10.3 57 -3 n ¢7 KENT HANCE A. DON CROWDER • 44., ruu a marcpSo of Off01j0411iult or moms three psroornagopcants , •., Asa.TRoOpitatie POROOlkailtOilitlfaNOMIOry iit,T!..as /46A UoKorsily: The Dallas Morning News: Mark Smith Pol. Adv. br Re-Elect Bill Clements Committee, Bob Perry, Treasurer.