Governor Rick Perry is back out front of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison with an 11-point lead in the 2010 Republican Primary gubernatorial race in Texas.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Texas GOP Primary voters finds Perry with 46% of the vote while Hutchison earns 35%. Four percent (4%) support Debra Medina, a tea-party activist who joined the GOP race a few months ago, and 14% are undecided.

Two months ago, the race was a toss-up following Hutchison’s tour of the state to launch her campaign. However, in mid-July, Perry led Hutchison by 10 points, 46% to 36%.

Perry has a 52% to 30% advantage over Hutchison among those who identify themselves as conservatives, while Hutchison attracts a majority of party moderates and liberals.

In all primary elections, turnout is the key, and it is very difficult to project turnout this far in advance. However, it appears that Perry has a clear advantage if only the conservative Republican base shows up in a low-turnout election. Hutchison will do better if she expands the number of people who participate.
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Both candidates are viewed favorably by 75% of likely GOP Primary voters.

Hutchison, who is seen as a more moderate alternative to the incumbent, has represented Texas in the U.S. Senate for 16 years. She has indicated an intent to resign from the Senate while campaigning for governor but has not set a date to step down. By a 60% to 26% margin, primary voters think she should stay in the Senate during the campaign.

Perry is seeking an unprecedented third term as governor. Perry won reelection in 2006 with 39% of the overall vote. Democrat Chris Bell earned 30%, followed by independent candidates Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Richard 'Kinky' Friedman with 18% and 12% support respectively.

Just 12% of Texas GOP Primary voters say the stimulus has helped the economy while 58% say it has hurt. When asked to look into the future and measure what the impact will be when all the stimulus money has been spent, the number who say it will hurt the economy grows by five percentage points.

Among GOP Primary voters, just 12% favor the health care plan working its way through Congress, and 87% are opposed. That latter figure includes 76% who are Strongly Opposed. Ninety-three percent (93%) want people to prove they are in the United States legally before receiving government subsidies for health care.

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of primary voters now approve of the job Perry is doing as governor, down five points from July. Twenty-nine percent (29%) disapprove of the governor’s performance. Perhaps more significantly, 20% strongly approve, down five points from the previous survey, while 12% strongly disapprove, up three points.

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