By Keegan Gibson, Managing Editor
Governor Corbett campaigned on his willingness to make tough choices, and the latest numbers from Public Policy Polling bear out the political risks of those decisions.
According to survey results released this afternoon, Corbett has the approval of 35 percent of voters and the disapproval of 46 percent. That’s a tic worse than the results of their April poll (34 to 44 percent).
However, these results seem to mitigate the conclusion by Quinnipiac pollsters in mid-June that Corbett’s problems derived from a severe shortage of support from women. According to this poll, the rate is about the same (women: 31 percent approve, 43 percent disapprove, 26 percent don’t know; men: 39 percent approve, 49 percent disapprove; 13 percent don’t know).
The voter registration breakdown in the poll was 50 percent Democratic, 39 percent Republican and 11 percent Independent/Other.
A few other notes in the poll –
Pat Toomey is in positive territory, about where you’d expect a freshman member of Congress. 30 percent approve of his performance while 29 percent disapprove (32-31 in April). 41 percent don’t have an opinion.
Democrats enjoy a 46 to 40 percent advantage in a generic congressional ballot. For comparison, the GOP enjoyed a 48 to 39 percent advantage in a PPP survey in August of 2010.
68 percent of Pennsylvanians favor some sort of legal recognition of same sex unions (32 percent support gay marriage, 36 percent are for civil unions).
PPP surveyed 545 Pennsylvania voters from June 30th to July 5th. No interviews were
conducted on July 3rd or 4th. The margin of error for the survey is +/-4.2%. This poll was
not paid for or authorized by any campaign or political organization. PPP surveys are
conducted through automated telephone interviews. PPP is a Democratic polling
company, but polling expert Nate Silver of the New York Times found that its surveys in
2010 actually exhibited a slight bias toward Republican candidates.
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5 Responses
@Dee
By “tough decisions” do you mean cutting education and forcing local school boards to raise taxes, so the Gov doesn’t have to get his hands dirty? It must be so tough to give the corporate lobbyists all over his administration exactly what they want, while short-changing the kids and seniors he never has to interact with. Oh, the courage!
For details see
http://www.commonwealthfoundation.org/research/detail/a-penny-saved-or-a-penny-burned with supporting hyperlinks
The Governor’s unpopularity in the face of his Fiscal Common Sense budget and the billions of dollars of remaining fiscal challenges is a testament to power of union messaging and a complicit media which has not said that the governor has made the tough decisions necessary to maintain fiscal integrity.
The debt to Federal Government of about $3 Billion for Unemployment Compensation borrowing.
Historic high State Debt of $127 billion. State debt grew $21 billion in last eight years. This budget was balanced without any additional borrowing.
And taxing the most productive job creator in Pennsylvania? How does that raise our standard of living?
State pension contributions to the underfunded PSERS and SERS will jump from $700 million to $4 billion by 2017.
Sorry the Governor acted responsibly. This is the untold story that the media narratives omit as they relentless hammer him for a callous heart for starving children and poor, defenseless people. The media’s malpractice can be credited for much of these poll numbers.
When your chief advisor is a convicted felon and as a result you are in the pockets of the gambling and gas drillers, of course you’re a failure. Welcome to PA politics. Corrupt and contented for more than a century.
Buyer’s remorse. He’s lucky he won’t be on the 2012 ballot.