The governor, like Republican politicians in other red states where support for legalization is surprisingly strong, does not seem to think it is risky to defy public opinion.

A new poll finds that 55 percent of Texas voters favor legalizing marijuana for recreational use. That’s down a bit from the 60-percent support measured last spring, but it is still a pretty striking result in a state where Republicans outnumber Democrats, control the state legislature, and occupy all statewide elected offices.

As you might expect, there was a big partisan gap in support for legalization. The survey, which The Dallas Morning News conducted this month in collaboration with the University of Texas at Tyler, found that 65 percent of Democrats wanted to legalize recreational marijuana, compared to 63 percent of independents and 43 percent of Republicans. Forty-eight percent of Republicans opposed legalization, while 9 percent offered no opinion.

National polling finds similar differences. In the most recent Gallup poll, 68 percent of respondents favored legalization. That majority included 50 percent of Republicans, 71 percent of independents, and 83 percent of Democrats. An SSRS survey conducted in April found that 54 percent of Republicans thought recreational use should be legal, compared to 78 percent of Democrats and 74 percent of independents. [Read more @ Reason]