Huffman ahead of Republican rivals in internal poll, far behind Bell

Joan Huffman, Republican candidate for 17th State Senate District, released an internal campaign poll that shows her well ahead of her Republican challengers but trailing former U.S. Rep. Chris Bell (D-Houston) by nearly 30 points. Huffman, a former Criminal District Judge, pulled 12 percent to Bell's 41 percent. The other Republicans in the race polled in single digits including businessman and former White House advisor Austen Furse at 4 percent and attorney Grant Harpold at 3 percent.

This poll parallels findings released by the Bell campaign in late August. In that trail heat, Bell received 42 percent of the vote to Huffman's 8 percent. Just 5 percent of voters choose Furse and 4 percent choose Harpold.

Huffman's campaign is touting the poll as evidence of a "two-person race" between her and Bell. All candidates will be competing on the same ballot in November, and the top two candidates will compete in a runoff if no one gets an outright majority in the special election. The campaign's manager, Jessica Colón, said Bell's negatives exceeded his positives among independent voters.

"Although the leading Democrat, Chris Bell's high negatives indicate his support is soft and will become softer once voters are reminded of the specific reason they have a negative impression of him," Colon said in a release.

Said Bell campaign spokesman Jason Stanford: "The fact is that [Huffman would] kill to be in Chris Bell's position right now instead of fighting with a bunch of fellow unknown Republicans for second place."

The poll was conducted by the Texas Polling Group August 27-29 among 500 registered voters in 17th district.  The margin of error is plus or minus 4 1/2 percent.