Poll: Likely voters strongly back Wolf for Pa. gov

[Divernan]

Source: Tribune-Review

PHILADELPHIA — A poll of voters likely to cast ballots in Pennsylvania's gubernatorial election shows they prefer Democrat Tom Wolf over Republican incumbent Tom Corbett by a 24-point margin.

The Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday shows Wolf, a wealthy businessman, is favored by 59 percent of likely voters compared with 35 percent for Corbett.

At least half said Wolf would do a better job handling the issues of jobs, education, government spending and taxes. Fifty-four percent said they believe Wolf is honest and trustworthy but they were tied at 43 percent over Corbett.

Quinnipiac culled the 1,161 likely voters from more than 1,500 registered voters, based on their stated intentions and voting records, in telephone interviews between Sept. 3 and 8. The sampling error margin is plus or minus 2.9




Read more: http://triblive.com/state/pennsylvania/6776768-74/voters-wolf-likely#axzz3Cvs3eS9M

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Hoping Corbett's unpopularity within his own party will depress GOP turnout (it definitely did in the primary) and help dems capture some state legislative seats.

[PeteSelman]

1. Corbett is toast.

Everyone hates him here. Not merely dislikes, outright hates that bastard. He'll be the first governor not to win a second term in 100 years or more. In fact, it may never have happened.

I just hope people won't think they don't have to vote because of the big lead.

[TRoN33]

2. Not even Obamacare can save Corbett... Almost ironic.

[charmay]

3. Good for PA!

Now let's get rid of Walker, Scott and the rest of the republicans who are dividing, plundering and destroying our states.

[BlueCaliDem]

4. It just amazed me that PA would even vote for a Republican governor.

But this is good news. PA is coming to their senses and removing that Koch Bros hack before he signs anymore disastrous laws that hurt the people.

Now ... time to take back the PA Legislature ...

[Divernan]

5. A supposedly Dem. paper, Pgh Post-Gazette, endorsed Corbett last time around.

Over Dem. Candidate, and home town Pittsburgher, Dan Onorato. Would love to hear the back story on the GOP pay-off of the publisher. The Post-Gazette also supports fracking - even at the airport adjacent to residential communities, and in a local park surrounded by residential communities.

[harun]

9. PA is loaded with shale gas

That money bought a GOP governor.

[BlueCaliDem]

10. That problem of too much money in politics can be resolved when people

stop believing that political ads, brochures, billboards, etc., are not legally bound to be truthful. I.O.W., there is NO truth in advertising when it comes to political ads, especially in an era of Citizens United. Once that sinks in, money will no longer have any influence on how people vote but instead, politicians will be considered by either their track record or their Party's platform. This is how it should be.

[harun]

14. I've lost all hope of anything ever sinking in to the average voter

Hope very much I am wrong.

[geek tragedy]

11. They call the center of the state Pennsyltucky for a reason--it's never been blue

the way that New York or Massachusetts are (both of those states have had Republican governors, and NY has the next worst thing with Cuomo)

[Patiod]

6. I don't know why

He's the same oaf that he was before - why are people just waking up to this?

But they are, and for that I am happy. One friend who works at a hardcore Republican investment firm, and who has allowed herself to be brainwashed by too much WSJ, and even she is making job plans that assume Wolfe will be Governor. I believe she used the phrase "everybody knows Corbett is toast"

Now if we could just get rid of Pat "Club for Growth" Toomey, who is still 100% behind Citizen's United, and make some headway in the state legislature, which is riddled with wingnut assholes from the Pennsyltucky woods, we'd be in a lot better shape....But "Governor Wolfe" would be a good start.

(our local state rep spoke to our local Dem Committee about the changes a Wolfe administration would make, and it was heartening)

[LynneSin]

8. Toomey comes up for election in 2016 - if we have a decent candidate he's a goner

As for how Corbett won in the first place - in a nutshell it was 2010 and the Tea Party was all the rage across the country. The same thing happened in 1994 which was also 2 years after a popular democrat was elected president. I don't think it helped that Ed Rendell's Lt. Governor was 85 years old. It would have been nice if Catherine Baker Knoll, who is popular in Pennsylvania, had stepped down after her first time but she ran again. And let's face it she was just too old to run for governor after Rendell's term was done. Instead the Democrat's had a candidate in 2010 that had very little name recognition and not much cash on hand to run an election. It was like shooting fish in a barrel for Corbett to win.

But Toomey will be gone in 2016. Honestly Santorum should have been gone in 2000 but somehow the Democrats ended up with the worst of 6 candidates who ran in the primary. It was some guy who lived about an hour outside Pittsburgh (which is basically nowhere) and thought he could win the election by ignoring Philadelphia. Absolutely no democratic can win Pennsylvania by ignoring Philadelphia and Klink actually LOST Pennsylvania even though Al Gore had won the state.

If we have a decent opponent against Toomey who can run strong in Philadelphia then Toomey will be gone.

[geek tragedy]

12. 2016 is also a Presidential year, which means the D base will turn out nt

[RadicalGeek]

15. We Do

Joe Sestak!

[LynneSin]

16. I think so too

He has the name recognition and in a Presidential election year he should be unbeatable even if there is a weak presidential candidate on the democratic ticket.

But in 2000 we had several strong contenders for US Senate to run against Santorum. Problem was too many democrats ran in the primary and the 2 good Philly candidates split the Philly vote giving Ron Klink the nomination. If Allison Schwartz tries to run in the primaries she could pull votes away from Sestak and that could leave us with a weaker candidate.

If the democrats are smart, at least the Philly area democrats, they would decide on one candidate for the area to run. I'm not saying we shouldn't have a primary - I just do not want a repeat of 2000. In 2000 - most of the republicans that won US Senate seats in the 1994 GOP landslide ended up losing their re-election bid, it may have been all of them except Santorum. Santorum should have been easy pickings but instead he was handed an unknown democratic opponent who had no name recognition in Philadelphia. What's worse, Klink decided to save money by not campaigning in Philly and instead spend his money elsewhere. So Santorum spent the bulk of his money running all these ads in the Philly area showing him (Santorum) as a warm, fuzzy loveable guy and then separate ads (not connected directly to Santorum) would run showing Klink as something 2 steps away from Satan reincarnated. With Klink not countering those ads he didn't stand a chance. Klink still came close to beating him but it wasn't enough.

[LynneSin]

7. Likely PA voters would vote for 3-day old roadkill over Gov Tom Corbett

Seriously

Problem with other races is that the state is so badly gerrymandered that it is nearly impossible for us to pick up many of the state or House races.

[BlueCaliDem]

13. California was badly gerrymandered, too (Republicans thought, in favor of Democrats),

and it was put to the voters to allow a special redistricting commission to decide. I was and am 100% for it although it was a Republican initiative and the California Democratic Party was against it.

But Prop 11 passed, the Voters First Act was signed into law, a special commission was chosen (3 Dems, 3 Repubs, 3 members of neither Party), and Republicans lost seats when redistricting was drawn in a fair way for all Parties in 2011. Gerrymandering is now impossible in the State of California. Maybe other States should try something like this?