More Texas-14: Paul Moving Up

I just had a chat with Mark Elam, Ron Paul's congressional campaign manager, who's backed up the rumors of good tracking polls in the race against Peden.

"He's improving his standing," Elam said, "which has never been in jeopardy in our polls." From a starting point of around 60 percent last month, Paul is at 72 percent in the last internal poll. Peden is at 11 percent. According to Elam the numbers have been moving since the campaign bought $400,000 in TV and radio ads in the district.

I asked about Peden's internal polls, which show him up 10 over Paul. "Our Democratic opponent said the same thing last year," Elam said. "I think we won by 20 points. These guys are doing so poorly that they have to put out false numbers." According to the Paul campaign's polls, only about 20 percent of TX-14 voters have an opinion of Peden, and most have never heard of him. Elam brushed off the endorsements of the Victoria and Galveston County papers: "They've endorsed against Dr. Paul in the past."

You can see and hear the Paul campaign's media right here. It's a lot more effective than one of Paul's latest pieces of direct mail for his presidential race, which James Kirchick has scanned and posted here.