Pennsylvania Miscellany

-There's good news and bad news for Tom Corbett in our latest Pennsylvania poll. The bad news is that his approval numbers are still under water- 37% of voters approve of him to 43% who disapprove. The good news is that his numbers are on the rise. When we polled the state in July he was at 35/46 and in April he was at 34/44.

If voters could do the 2010 election for Governor over again their support would split evenly with 45% each for Corbett and Democratic opponent Dan Onorato. This represents improvement for Corbett as well. He trailed Onorato by 3-5 points in hypothetical rematches earlier in the year. But the numbers still show a decent amount of buyer's remorse among PA voters for having elected Corbett.

-Voters are pretty ambivalent when it comes to Pat Toomey's performance so far in the Senate: 35% approve, 33% disapprove, and 32% have no opinion.

-Pennsylvanians are pretty evenly divided on the Occupy Wall Street movement with 40% of voters saying they support its goals to 39% who oppose them. They fare a lot better than the Tea Party which is unpopular, with 37% of voters saying they support it to 43% expressing opposition. Asked which of the movements they have a higher opinion of, 41% pick Occupy Wall Street to 38% for the Tea Party.

-Pennsylvania mirrors most of the country when it comes to more rights for same sex couples: voters in the state are opposed to gay marriage, but supportive of civil unions. Only 36% think gay marriage should be legal to 52% who believe it should be illegal. But when you add civil unions into the mix 64% of voters support some form of legal recognition for gay couples to only 33% who think there shouldn't be any at all. Even 52% of Republicans support either gay marriage or civil unions.

-Democrats lost a lot of House seats in Pennsylvania last year but they're doing well on the generic House ballot there now, leading 47-42. Democrats have led most of our national House ballot polling this year, and they led in Ohio and Florida the last time we asked this question as well. Always hard to say exactly what that translates to in terms of seats gained and lost, but it probably means at least some pick ups for Democrats if the climate holds. It also really says something about Barack Obama's weakness in Pennsylvania that he can only attain a tie with Mitt Romney in the state even as his party has a 5 point generic House ballot lead.

-They've been out of office for nearly a year but Pennsylvanians still aren't warming back up to former Governor Ed Rendell or ex-Senator Arlen Specter. 38% have a favorable opinion of Rendell to 45% with a negative one. That's at least a lot better than Specter who's seen positively by just 30% of voters with 51% holding an unfavorable opinion. Rendell and Specter have comparably bad numbers among Republicans, but Rendell's seen much more charitably by Democrats.

Full results here

Comments

[Frodo]

Did you also poll gay marriage in Arizona, Montana and Florida ?

If yes, when do you plan releasing it ?

[Rick]

not buying ANY of this crap.....Dems got their clocked cleaned in Pennsy a month ago and now all of a sudden Pennsy is turning solid blue?

I'm betting they favored the Southeastern part of the state with their sampling.

[Dustin Ingalls]

Rick, this is the same poll that had Obama and Romney tied.

[pbrower2a]

Tom Corbett looks as if he will be no help for the Republican nominees for President, US Senate, or House seats.

Some Republican Governors in arguable swing states (Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) stand to hurt the GOP chances of winning the Senate, defeating President Obama, or even holding onto the House.

I see the 2012 general election looking more like that of 1948 except that the President won't be traveling by train.

[Bilbo Baggins]

Only the tea party crazies voted in the last election that's why R's had gains. Hopefully, some more rational people will vote next November. Frodo-- the D's still hold a big registration lead in PA, FYI.

[Louis]

We Tea Party "crazies" consist of people who work, are retired, or are looking for work. At our monthly meetings, we listen to experts on the Constitution, candidates from both parties, specialists in the use of social media. You know, that 'crazy' kind of stuff.

Our group also puts on a sedate, sidewalk rally at the largest mall in the country, every Saturday for the past two and a half years. The thousands who see us are comprised of a cross section of all income groups. And those passersby express their support for us and our signs at the rate of about twenty to one, a ratio that's grown from six or eight to one when we began.

For the past six or eight months, we're also getting positive gestures from minorities, every week. Not enough to make a big deal about, yet it's interesting. In addition, I met recently with a newly formed Tea Party in a working class neighborhood of Philadelphia. Their leader later advised me that most of their members are Democrats.

Regards,

The General Wayne Tea Party

[pbrower2a]

The Tea Party has peaked. People are getting wise to the reality that the Tea Party is the cats' paw for people who believe that America needs even more severe economic inequality and economic insecurity. These fellows want government by lobbyist, which is 100% alien to the ideas within the Federalist Papers. We liberals are catching on.

With little of the Tea Party agenda being enacted, America has an economic recovery based on something other than war and destructive speculation.

[Fred]

pbrower2a: The Tea Party does not believe that America needs economic inequality. The Tea Party believes in economic freedom, which DOES correspond to the ideas within the Federalist Papers, and will result in more people working, and more people climbing the economic ladder to a wealthier position.

As you say, little of the Tea Party agenda has been enacted to-date. The Progressive agenda is causing the current long-term lethargic economy, along with the crony capitalism being practiced by the President, such as with the Solyndra scandal. The Progressive agenda is actually regressive, causing America to have more unemployment, gargantuan debt, higher taxes, fewer energy sources and lower supplies, and generally causing more and more people to live worse than their parents for the first time in American history.

pbrower2a - The Tea Party agenda will raise everyone economically using freedom and liberty as tools, while the Progressive agenda will keep the bottom half down and lower the top half to the level of the bottom half using government force and oppression as tools.