Edwards wins Texas Democrats' Internet poll; wife cites his rural background, policy stands

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards won an Internet straw poll of Texas Democrats because "He understands their lot – he too grew up in a town where Sunday morning church and Sunday evening church and Wednesday night church and Friday night football were what the town was built around," his wife, Elizabeth Edwards, said in Austin while she was in town for a fundraiser and book promotion. She added, "He has a rural policy, which is sorely missing from the other candidates."

State Democratic Chairman Boyd Richie said Edwards won 38 percent of the total vote of 8,101, while Illinois Sen. Barack Obama got 21 percent and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton 20 percent. Five other candidates split the vote in the week-long poll, writes Robert T. Garrett of the Dallas Morning News.

Garrett warns: "Online surveys are not considered an accurate reflection of public opinion because participants are a self-selected group. Reputable pollsters carefully screen respondents to ensure they are potential voters, and they take a sample that matches the breakdown of a population by age, race, sex and location."

Richie said the party tried to block attempts to vote from out of state or more than once. "But the party could do little to ensure that respondents were even eligible to vote, let alone registered to vote or likely to do so in a Democratic primary," Garrett writes. Richie said the poll was "more representative" than the state Republican Party's straw poll, in which " 1,300 Texas Republican activists voted in person, but they had to pay to do so," Garrett writes. "The poll was won by U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California." (Read more)