Good news for Governor-Elect Tom Wolf.
On the eve of his inauguration, a majority of Pennsylvania voters are generally confident about the incoming Governor’s term.
A Mercyhurst Center for Applied Politics poll found that 23 percent of voters are “very” confident and 46 percent are “somewhat” confident in Wolf’s ability to govern. Just 9 percent of voters were “not at all” confident in the new governor.
Voters are optimistic about Wolf’s problem-solving skills, as well, with 65% expressing confidence that he can tackle the state’s problems. And a majority (52%) believe Wolf will be able to work effectively with the GOP-controlled state legislature.
Though half of voters feel that Wolf will perform better than outgoing Governor Tom Corbett, 29 percent, a sizable minority, believe the two will lead “about the same.”
As for the issues, Pennsylvania voters continue to prioritize education. A quarter of voters believe education should be Wolf’s top priority in office, and the issue outranks the economy and jobs by 2 percent. Taxes ranked third, with 13 percent of voters wanting that to be Wolf’s focus.
Voters are generally supportive of Wolf’s progressive agenda. Wolf took a beating for proposing a progressive income tax during his campaign, but 58% of voters favor the tax. In addition, a solid majority of voters support raising the minimum wage, adding a 5 percent extraction tax on natural gas and increasing public school funding.
But conservative ideas also polled favorably. Just over half of voters (52 percent) favor liquor privatization, and a larger majority (58 percent) support pension reform — both issues Republican leadership in the House and Senate are pushing to address this session.
The Mercyhurst poll surveyed 434 Pennsylvania voters from Jan. 7-16 and has a margin of error of +/-4.75 percent.
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2 Responses
On what basis do those polled think that he will be able to work with an enhanced and even more conservative GOP majority in the state legislature? Particularly when he has said no their priorities on pension reform and liquor store privatization.
It seems that if he even hopes to get any of his agenda passed that he would need to give on those issues.
Never mind the fact that any kind of progressive income tax will probably hit a hurdle in the courts and the decline in the price of oil will cut into any kind of shale tax revenue that he might gain.
Was it wishful thinking?
The message in this poll isn’t one of approval but one of high expectations