There is good news and bad news in the poll released today by the Art Halvorson campaign.
The good news is that the poll that shows him cutting his deficit with Rep. Bill Shuster in half. The bad news is that the gap between the candidates is still 26 points.
Halvorson, a retired Coast Guard Captain, is challenging incumbent Congressman Bill Shuster in the GOP primary to represent Pennsylvania’s 9th Congressional District. Halvorson is running as a Tea Party insurgent against Rep. Shuster, who he feels is insufficiently conservative.
The Gravis Marketing poll released by the challenger shows Shuster just under the magic 50% line for incumbents at 49.1%. Halvorson meanwhile took in 22.5% of support, but 28.4% of respondents remain unsure.
Gravis Marketing is a new polling firm that leans Republican and was accused by several liberal blogs during the 2012 presidential election of ineffective techniques and inaccurate results.
“We’re very pleased with the results, it shows we’re ahead of schedule with this race,” Art Halvorson told PoliticsPA. “The fact that Mr. Shuster is under 50% before Christmas, with all the the money he has spent on the race so far is a good sign.”
“His money is not able to overcome the fact that he’s not a conservative and he’s who he says he is,” Halvorson concluded. “Money can’t buy him love.”
The Shuster campaign responded in kind.
“Art Halvorson’s survey is as laughable as his attempt to move to Pennsylvania to buy a Congressional seat. A real poll would survey all of the candidates, including Travis Shooley. Survey after survey has consistently shown Congressman Shuster with a commanding lead in the primary,” Shuster campaign manager Sean Joyce said. “Pennsylvania voters will never believe Halvorson’s constant negative campaign which continually attempts to paint Congressman Shuster as something other than a proven conservative leader in Congress.”
The Halvorson campaign was quick to point out that an October Harper poll showed them down 52 points, meaning that they have cut their opponents lead in half in the two months since then.
Rep. Bill Shuster represents, PA-09 which consists of multiple counties along the southern border with Maryland between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. The district is strongly Republican, with the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rating the district R+14. Therefore, the winner of the GOP primary would likely win the general election.
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12 Responses
Bill is a good guy but his campaign aide i met at an event was a disgrace. He was hurling insults about Halvorson that was so over the top disgusting I lost ALL respect for Shuster for having kids like this on payroll. But he told me his daddy owns a business in the district so Must be a quid pro quo – Bill hires a donor’s kid to get campaign contributions.
What I don’t get is how a man like Schooley, who obviously has a personal conviction to run for this office, should be expected to drop out just because you and the rest of the ant-Shuster crowd, found somebody cooler to sit with at the lunch table. You, on this very forum, used to relentlessly support him.
I can respect someone who truly thinks another candidate is better, but you’ve exposed yourself as someone who simply has a personal axe to grind and will jump on whoever has the most attractive bandwagon.
Also, nobody thinks the RINO stuff is clever. Please, on behalf of all of us, just stop it. Thanks.
I don’t get it. Two years ago Bill Shuster swatted Travis Schooley like a fly (got his petitions thrown out), but now Shuster’s lackeys complain every time a poll or news story is released where Schooley wasn’t included.
I think Shuster knows that there’s a good chance he will lose a 1-on-1 race with Art Halvorson. His only hope is for Schooley to split the anti-Shuster vote and create the same result as what happened recently in the Virginia Governor’s race.
How can Schooley be so clueless? All he’s going to do is insure that the Shusters keep control of the seat for another 10 or 20 years until Bill hands it off to one of his kids or some other handpicked successor.
Art Halvorson can beat Shuster. Travis Schooley can’t.
Automated phone poll of registered voters without Travis Schooley included. It’s all smoke and mirrors, folks. Halvorson won’t get a sniff…besides, anyone who meets this twitchy guy wouldn’t vote for him.
Republican Reform – is that what we’re calling the Tea Party Movement these days now that “Tea Party” has negative connotations and their public popularity has plummeted? I suppose that’s all marketing and has nothing to do with the fact that Americans have had two years to see what Tea Party “governance” is like.
Should I vote for a career politician or for Captain Halvorson? The choice is clear time to send men and women of character to Congress. My vote is for Art Halvorson
State Republican Leadership, (the Establishment) is underestimating the intensity and the effective organizing by grassroots. It is not yet seen at the media level but I am finding out, every day, how powerful the wave of Republican Reform is. The media is focusing on short term horse race and not seeing the tsunami below the surface. Tom Corbett’s gas tax is not making Republican incumbents popular with the Republican voter who forced to fund Republican spending. We shall see.
Time to purge the career politicians from office and replace them with public servants who honor their oaths of office and our Constitution.
King of Spades, despite your clear desire to read what you want out of these polling numbers you’d be hard pressed to find anyone that believes Halvorson has a chance here. The last poll released was so bad for Art that the only place he could go is up.
From what I’ve seen, Halvorson seems like a good candidate that simply has horrible advisors. In all my years, I’ve yet to see a campaign fail so miserably.
Don’t you love how the Shuster camp is playing the carpetbagger card when it was Bud who moved himself and his family to PA just to run for the seat back in 1972?
Anytime an incumbent falls below 50%, he’s in BIG trouble. I’d wager that Bill Shuster will soon be joining Tom Corbett in the unemployment line.
Even as a Dem, it would be great to see Shuster knocked off. The Shuster’s have been riding the gravy train long enough.
Real Republcian riding the Republican reform wave in Pennsylvania.