HOUSTON – A poll from the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs shows the race for Harris County judge is in a statistical dead heat.
In a survey of likely Harris County voters conducted the week of Oct. 10, Republican Alexandra del Moral Mealer had a 2% lead over Democratic incumbent Judge Lina Hidalgo with 8% of voters still undecided.
WATCH: Mealer speaks to her supporters about tight race
According to the survey, the top three policy issues for del Moral Mealer voters are crime and public safety, immigration and border security and government corruption.
“It would be the biggest honor of my life the opportunity to have such a positive impact and what you’ve seen is an incredibly broad spectrum across the board,” Mealer said outside at a polling location in River Oaks Tuesday. “We’ve united the full spectrum of the Republican Party and have obviously been resonating very well with independents because apparently, these local issues are not partisan.”
The top three policy issues for Hidalgo voters are voting rights, racial equity and equality and abortion.
”We’ve been able to work on the core issues of flooding and public safety and also so much more,” said Hidalgo, the incumbent judge. “So look is it going to be challenging? Yes, my opponent is literally speaks for the developers that don’t like our flood control policies, speaks for these big far-right donors, hundreds of thousands of dollars that she’s received from them.”
Professor Mark Jones is a co-author of a report on the survey.
“This is not going to be an election about persuading voters who normally vote Republican to vote Democrat or about rollers who normally vote Democratic to vote Republican. The winner of this race is likely to be decided by hooping turnout, their base and their supporters at a higher rate,” Jones said.
Also on the ballot -- Harris County commissioners for Precinct 2 and Precinct 4. There are also three bonds totaling $1.2 billion.
Harris County Administrator David Berry was a guest on “Houston Newsmakers” with Khambrel Marshall to talk about the community engagement meetings taking place to provide voters with information.
“It’s an important question for voters to decide,” he said. “They’re deciding if they trust the county to invest $1.2 billion dollars in projects that make their lives better.”
Those projects range from the Prop A $100 million dollar proposition for upgrades in public safety facilities in technologies to the Prop B $900 million dollar request for roads, drainage, and transportation-related projects. Prop C will ask for $200 million for parks and trails for upgrades and new facilities for people with disabilities.
Because of the depth of the issues, See details about the propositions here.