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F&M Poll: Wolf Receives Good Numbers in First Survey of His Tenure

Governor-WolfNewly-elected Gov. Tom Wolf’s got his first report card, so to speak.

A new Franklin & Marshall College poll out Thursday finds nearly two in five Pennsylvania voters (38 percent) consider the governor’s job performance to be “excellent” or “good.”

The results split along party lines as expected, with 58 percent of Democrats saying Wolf is doing an “excellent/good” job and 61 percent of Republicans saying he is performing “only fair/poor.”

When ranked with his predecessors, Wolf fairs better than recently-ousted Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, who hovered at just 30 percent “excellent/good” job performance at the beginning of his term. But stacked against popular former Governors Ed Rendell and Tom Ridge, Wolf falters a bit — Rendell and Ridge began their terms with just below and just above 50 percent of voters, respectively, considering their job performance “excellent/good.”

Gov Ratings-March 2015

Wolf’s approval rating remained stagnate at 40 percent, the same as the college’s October 2014 survey. There was a slight uptick in the number of Pennsylvania voters undecided about Wolf, rising from 18 to 22 percent since the last poll.

The best news for Wolf, however, lies in the number of Pennsylvanians who believe the state is headed in the right direction. Though more Pennsylvanians (47 percent) responded that the state was off on the wrong track, the 39 percent who do believe the state is moving forward is the highest percentage since the college’s February 2010 survey.

Just last October, only 28 percent of Pennsylvanians were positive about the state’s future, while a solid majority (61 percent) were pessimistic.

Another win for Wolf? His budget plan is much better liked by the people of Pennsylvania than the Republicans in the legislature. A majority (59 percent) support the plan proposed in Wolf’s first budget address.

The Franklin & Marshall poll surveyed 597 Pennsylvania voters from March 17 to 23 and has a margin of error of +/- 4.2 percent.

11 Responses

  1. Tom Wolfe is a good man.
    What a welcome relief from the punitive Corbett administration which wanted to inflict yet more harm upon the already afflicted— the poor, elderly, disabled and disadvantaged.
    As a right wing ideologue, Tom Corbett lost the state millions upon millions of dollars in stalling the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid Expansion in Pennsylvania.

  2. PoliticsPA is a left leaner. If this was a negative poll, it wouldn’t have been posted at all.

  3. So I see the F & M poll that suggests that Pennsylvanians are in favor of the Governor’s proposal to increase sales and income taxes used THIS question (which doesn’t even mention the sales tax) to make that determination. And, it doesn’t mention that the $1000 figure isn’t across the board and is dependent on your school district – MOST people would NOT get a $1000 reduction. Who do you know that is over 55 who wouldn’t agree to an increased income tax to get a property tax reduction (without mentioning the sales tax increase)?

    Would you favor or oppose a plan that would increase the state income tax from 3.07 percent to 3.7 percent if your property taxes were reduced by $1,000?

    Someone should be ripping F&M for this irresponsible poll. The media is too lazy. Come on PoliticsPA….you’re better than this to just report such misleading crap.

  4. The numbers are good even though Republicans are successfully painting Wolf’s proposed budget as a tax increase, even though average folks would see their total tax bill go down. Democrats, as usual, seem to be doing little to counter this.

  5. Fudged numbers no doubt. Wolf has yet to do anything about the absurd and dangerous practice of FRACKING except to suck more money from the drilling companies which in no way addresses the health hazards of FRACKING.

    Bad moon on the rise filled with tax increases. Rendell all over again!

  6. Wolf has been in office for 2 months and it’s been pretty rocky. This guy is going to be in the Corbett category pretty soon if he doesn’t realize he was a fluke. People didn’t vote for his crappy tax raises like he thinks, they just voted against the other guy. Spite won the day not merit. He’s a 4 year governor at this rate.

  7. I think a poll this early on before the final budget is passed isn’t exactly fair. Right now both sides have taken their stands on whether they support Wolf’s budget proposals or not. What matters most is what the final budget will be and what the effects are after it is passed. Wolf needs more time than to write him off now and complain about his job performance.

  8. Your conclusion than Wolf’s plan is liked more than the Republican’s plan is not supported by the poll. The question asked was:

    “Budg2. Governor Wolf proposed increasing the state’s sales tax, increasing personal income taxes and creating a Marcellus Shale extraction tax. These increases would be used to reduce local property taxes and to increase state funding to public schools in Pennsylvania. Do you generally favor or oppose the Governor’s plan for (
    rotated) [funding public schools/balancing the state budget/reducing property taxes]?”

    The question as presented asked about the pros of the budget without any consideration of the cons.

    Plus 43% of the people surveyed admitted that they knew nothing about Wolf’s budget.

    I yearn for a return of the days of Keegan Gibson.

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