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By Alex Roarty
PoliticsPA Staff Writer
roarty@politicspa.com

The last three months have been good to Joe Sestak. They have seen the Democratic Senate candidate not only unseat incumbent Arlen Specter in the primary but also erase what was  once nearly a double-digit deficit against Republican Pat Toomey in the general election race.

A Quinnipiac University poll  released Wednesday showed the two men tied at 43 percent after the same survey released April 8 showed Sestak trailing by 8 points, 42 percent to 34 percent.

It’s not an altogether surprising surge for Sestak, who had a far more visible primary than Toomey and spent roughly $5 million on TV advertisements  in the race’s final month. But it’s a reminder that, for all the GOP optimism surrounding Toomey’s campaign, he still faces a tough battle to win in a state that has leaned left in nearly all recent elections.

“Congressman Sestak, a decided underdog who knocked off U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary, has now closed an 8-point gap  in the last three months  to tie Pat Toomey,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “But the Senate race remains wide open, since at this  point about half the voters don’t know enough about either candidate to form an opinion. Perhaps Toomey can feel good that in recent months, when all the attention was on Sestak’s primary win, he has limited the damage.”

Sestak’s post-primary momentum might help explain why Toomey has already hit the airwaves with a set of negative ads criticizing the Democrat for supporting a litany of liberal initiatives. The candidate also had a set of ads running in the weeks before the primary.

The poll did hold several positives for Toomey. Among independents, he leads 44 percent to 35 percent. And the ratio of voters who view him positively compared to negatively, 35 percent to 13 percent, is better than Sestak’s, which is 31 percent to 20 percent.

He also continues to hold a fundraising advantage over Sestak, according to figures released by both campaigns Tuesday.

Also worth noting: The poll  reported that 48 percent of voters said President Obama does not deserve a second term, compared to 42 percent who said he does.

The poll surveyed 1,367 voters from  July 6 to July 11. It has a margin of error of 2.7 points.

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