Business group favors Goddard for governor

If small-business owners have their way, Terry Goddard could finally get to be governor, a post that has eluded him.

A new survey of members of the Arizona Small Business Association found that 43 percent of the 250 companies that responded to the survey preferred Goddard. The former Phoenix mayor finally ran successfully for attorney general in 2002 after his unsuccessful bids to be the state's chief executive the previous decade.

The closest competition Goddard has, according to pollster Mike O'Neil, is from Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, another Democrat. He got 21 percent.

And everyone else? Only Republican Mary Peters, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, managed to break double digits at 10 percent. She was trailed by four other Republicans: Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, state Treasurer Dean Martin and Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, with Thomas polling just 5 percent.

But O'Neil said Goddard should not be measuring the drapes in the governor's office yet.

"My guess is, that at this point, it's heavily name recognition," he said.