Dave Weigel points me to the first public poll (.pdf) in the Texas-14 Republican congressional primary race. It shows incumbent Ron Paul beating challenger Chris Peden 63 percent to 30 percent, with 7 percent undecided. Paul leads Peden among those concerned about the war in Iraq, the economy, taxes, health care, immigration, moral values, and “other.” Peden leads Paul only among those concerned about education.

Paul does less well in the presidential race. According to this poll, he is carrying a respectable 18 percent of the district’s voters but this still puts him in third place. John McCain would carry the district with 49 percent and Mike Huckabee would come in second with 27 percent. McCain wins 70 percent of those voting on the basis of the war. So are the congressional primary voters whose top issue is Iraq different from the presidential war voters? Or do they somehow not know about Paul’s antiwar views or McCain’s hawkishness?

It’s just one poll, but it is closer to the results the Paul campaign has been pushing than the numbers cited in the recent Pajamas Media story.