Locke, Show Us Your Internal Poll!

Annise Parker is using Lake Research for her polling - a very reputable, national Democratic polling firm. We got a look at Parker's latest internal poll last night which showed this:

Annise Parker: 27%

Peter Brown: 21%

Gene Locke: 17%

Roy Morales: 11%

Undecided: 24%

And, we learned that this poll was conducted by talking to Houston voters with City voting history - something that was apparently missing in the Houston Chronicle/Zogby poll and in last night's KHOU poll, as well. In other words, instead of calling registered voters and asking them if they were likely to vote in the mayoral race, the starting point was with registered voters who had history of voting in City of Houston elections.

Looking through Gene Locke's campaign finance reports, it's clear he's using Fairbank, Maslin, Maulin & Associates for his polling. Each of Locke's reports shows he paid for a poll:

3/19/2009 Fairbanks, Maslin, Maulin & Assoc., Inc. $30,000

9/11/2009 Fairbanks, Maslin, Maulin & Assoc, Inc. $25,000

10/21/2009 Fairbanks, Maslin, Maulin & Assoc, Inc. $23,500

I thought Team Parker had a good strategy last night - get their poll showing her ahead with likely City voters before the KHOU poll was released. Team Locke is not stupid - if their 10/21 poll had good news, you have to believe they would have released theirs, as well.

One of the main reasons for doing a poll is not just to figure out where your horse is in the horse race, but to hone your messaging to voters. What messages about you poll strong with voters? You'll use those on TV, in mail and at forums and debates. What messages about your opponents can you use to tear them down so that voters abandon them and swing your way?

What messages have we heard from Locke lately? All I'm hearing is a tear down of Peter Brown. Locke is pounding Brown on buying the election, so I think it's fair to say that's where Locke's poll shows Brown as vulnerable. I'm guessing Locke's internal polling also shows him in 3rd place - the same as the Chron poll, the Parker internal poll and the KHOU poll. I'm also guessing it shows Parker either in first place or it shows her as less vulnerable to opposition messages as it does Brown.

If you have any thoughts on this, leave them in the comments. What else have we heard from Locke lately that is probably informed by his Oct. 21 poll results?

UPDATE: Thinking about polling reminds me of a Locke internal memo a friend said he saw that had a 50%+1 strategy for winning. I wasn't sure if that was the strategy for winning outright on Nov. 3rd or if it's the runoff strategy. Either way, I have to think half of that - 25% -  was by getting 80-90% of the African American vote. What was the plan for putting together the remainder of the 50%? 25% from Republicans and 25% from Hispanic and White Democrats? Anyone have any thoughts on this? His fundraising continues to be successful - who do you think continues to buy into this strategy? I'd be surprised if he's able to make the case for that much of the African American vote right now.