Popularity

Excelsior turned its popularity meter, which measures both voter recognition as well as public opinion of different figures, toward the PRI yesterday. Of the three most likely PRI presidential candidates, Beatriz Paredes scored 82 on voter recognition and Enrique Peña Nieto tallied 80, while Manlio Fabio Beltrones scored only 40. Part of the discrepancy is owed to the fact that the first two have long track records in Mexico City, and Beltrones is from more remote Sonora, but the latter lags on the confidence scores as well. Fifty-five percent of respondents have a good or very good opinion of Paredes, 69 percent feel the same about Peña, but only 33 percent offered such an endorsement of Beltrones.