Three months from the election, the twisty four-way race for Texas Governor continues to keep political junkies on the edge of their seats.

Republican Governor Rick Perry's support has dropped by five percentage points since our July poll, as Democrat Chris Bell escapes last place to draw even with the two Independents in the race. So now it's Perry 35%, Bell 18%, Carole Keeton Strayhorn (I) 18%, Kinky Friedman (I) 18%.

Texas law makes those numbers look even better to Perry. There's no general-election runoff in Texas; if a candidate wins only a plurality on Election Day, he gets the job.

Last year, Perry escaped a possibly crippling challenge from U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R). Having dodged that bullet and watched his opponents divide the vote, he is now favored to win reelection. But, the incumbent has hardly locked it down.

Equal numbers of Texas voters have “very favorable” and “very unfavorable” views of Governor Perry. That’s not a great position for an incumbent. However, it’s better than the numbers posted by his competitors. Bell is viewed very favorably by 7% and very unfavorably by 12%, very low numbers for a major party challenger. For Strayhorn, the numbers are 14% very favorable and 18% very unfavorable. Friedman’s numbers are 17% and 21% respectively.

Early in the year some observers wondered whether the two Independents might siphon enough votes from the Governor Perry to allow Democrat Bell to grab the prize. As things stand now, there's no certainty that Bell will be the one to benefit if Perry’s position deteriorates further. Strayhorn is the only challenger currently competitive with Perry in terms of campaign cash.

The natural reluctance of voters to "waste" their votes on a third-party candidate obviously hasn't stopped the two Independents from making strong showings. Still, party loyalty may well have kept Strayhorn from attracting as much support as she would have as a Republican, or Bell from doing even more poorly.

Twenty-eight percent (28%) of likely voters here say the economy is the most important election issue to them. Eighteen percent (18%) say it's immigration, 16% say national security.

Forty-eight percent (48%) agree that the political system is "badly broken"; 37% disagree.

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