I’d been hearing plenty of consistent rumors that Ron Paul was polling poorly in his congressional district, but didn’t publish any of them because there was no way to verify the sources—and some of the reports I had heard seemed a bit suspect. Ballot Access News has just linked to data which suggests that the opposite is true. Additionally, Dennis Kucinich seems safe in his district, as well.

Dennis Kucinich leads his Democratic opponents with 55%, over 29% for Joe Cimperman. Three other candidates register 5% or lower.

From the Public Policy Polling Texas release:

Just 18% of likely Republican primary voters intend to cast their votes for President next week for Paul, compared to 49% for John McCain and 27% for Mike Huckabee. Paul is at least doing better in his own district than his Democratic counterpart Dennis Kucinich, who fared at just 4% in a similar survey conducted earlier this week.

Facing a challenge on the right from Friendswood City Councilman Chris Peden in the Republican primary, Paul looks safe for reelection though. He leads Peden 63-30.

“Ron Paul basically suspended his active candidacy for President earlier this month to go home and focus on getting reelected,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “If he had continued to spend most of his time campaigning out of state he might have been in trouble, but it doesn’t appear he’s facing too much damage on the home front for his national candidacy.”

Peden has particularly tried to attack Paul on issues like the war and moral and family values, but the poll shows he’s not getting much traction. Paul leads 64-27 among voters who said Iraq was their biggest concern, and has a 65-28 advantage with people who listed moral and family values as their top issue.

The poll also shows Paul popular with young people, a trend that has held across the country. He gets 29% of their votes for President, and leads Peden 75-11 with that group for Congress.

PPP surveyed 468 likely Republican primary voters on February 27th. The survey’s margin of errors is +/-4.7%. Other factors, such as refusal to be interviewed and weighting, may introduce additional error that is more difficult to quantify.