RALEIGH, N.C. – It’s not clear at this point who will win the Republican nomination for Governor of Texas next year, but regardless of who it is they’ll start out with a strong advantage if the opponent is Democrat Tom Schieffer.

Hutchison leads the former ambassador 54-30 while Perry holds a 45-35 advantage.

Hutchison is by far the most popular of the trio, with 58% of the electorate holding a favorable opinion of her compared to just 31% who view her unfavorably. Perry and Schieffer each have more voters who view them negatively than positively, with 48% having an unfavorable opinion of Perry compared to 41% for whom it’s a favorable one, and 31% not having a good opinion of Schieffer compared to 25% who do.

“What these results indicate is that Democrats who want to have any chance at retaking the Governor’s office should be rooting for Rick Perry in the primary,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “Hutchison takes 20% of the Democratic vote and has a 23 point lead among independents against Schieffer, and that makes her close to unbeatable.”

The survey also looked at Barack Obama’s approval rating in the state and found that 45% of Texas voters approve of his job performance with 46% disapproving.

His reviews are extremely polarized along party lines with 90% of Democrats but only 8% of Republicans approving of what he’s done so far. His numbers are slightly negative among independent voters as well.

PPP polled 1,409 likely voters from February 18th to 20th. The survey’s margin of error is +/-2.6%. Other factors, such as refusal to be interviewed and weighting, may introduce additional error that is more difficult to quantify.

Complete results can be found at www.publicpolicypolling.com.