Quinnipiac Poll: Corbett Approval Still Low, Trails Dems

Tom Corbett upsetTom Corbett continues to be his own worst enemy according to the latest survey from Quinnipiac. Thanks to low approval ratings, he trails challengers with paltry name ID.

Corbett didn’t match his all-time low, but he came close.

48% of respondents said they disapprove the job Corbett is doing as Governor while 35% said they approve. His lowest point was June 2012, when disapproval reached 50% to 35%.

By 20 points, 52% to 32%, voters said Corbett does not deserve to be re-elected. That deficit spikes to 28 points among women, 55% to 27%, continuing the Governor’s gender gap problem.

He earned negative marks among every demographic subdivision identified in the poll: age, gender, region, income level and party (except only Republicans).

Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,032 registered voters via live interviews on land lines and cell phones from May 30 to June 4. The margin of error is +/- 3.1%.

The results are in the neighborhood of other recent polls. For example a Franklin & Marshall survey in May found only 25% of respondents said Corbett deserved to be re-elected.

Head-to-Heads

Quinnipiac tested two head-to-head matchups. Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz lead Corbett 45% to 35%. State Treasurer Rob McCord lead 43% to 35%. Both Democrats enjoy a 20+ point lead among women.

“Already unpopular with Pennsylvania women, Gov. Tom Corbett trails the leading female challenger, U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz, and State Treasurer Rob McCord,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “Election Day is 17 months away, but Schwartz is in a strong position to become Pennsylvania’s first female Governor.”

Perhaps Corbett’s biggest ray of hope in the poll is that so few people know anything about his challengers. Only 27% respondents knew enough about Schwartz to form an opinion (19% favorable, 8% unfavorable). And only 14% knew enough about McCord (10% favorable, 4% unfavorable).

Democratic primary

A massive 63% of Democrats are undecided in the primary race for Governor.

Schwartz leads the pack in the pack, but is not so dominant in her position that she can expect to deter other prospective candidates.

She had the support of 18% of Democrats. Former Dep’t of Environmental Protection Secretary Katie McGinty had 5%; McCord took 4%; former Pa. Revenue Sec. Tom Wolf had 2%.

4 other candidates had 1 percent: former DEP Sec. John Hanger, Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, state Sen. Mike Stack (D-Phila), and pastor Max Myers.

Qunnipiac’s April survey of the Democratic gubernatorial race showed Schwartz and former Rep. Joe Sestak tied at 15% each.

Since that poll, Sestak announced the formation of an exploratory committee for a 2016 rematch against Sen. Pat Toomey and ruled out a bid for Governor.

For the primary, Quinnipiac used a subset of 460 Democrats from its primary survey. The margin of error in the primary contest is plus or minus 4.6%.

Miscellaneous

52% to 46%, respondents say they are dissatisfied with the way things are going in Pa.

53% to 27%, respondents say they disapprove the way the state legislature is handling its job.

Bryan Magee contributed to this report.

13 Responses

  1. “The results of a Quinnipiac Poll are analogous to a poll taken by the operatives within the Allyson Schwartz campaign.”-K3

    Isn’t that is what David Freed said about Kathleen Kane?

  2. Kathleen3 – Quinnipiac correctly had Obama beating Romney in Pennsylvania just like they now show your beloved Mr. Corbett losing. Criticize the pollster all you want but that doesn’t change the facts of the perilous political situation Governor Corbett finds himself in…and he has no one to blame but himself, his poor political skills and his misguided policies that Pennsylvanians have flat out rejected.

  3. Jack Tandy-

    Corbett has no one left to vote for him except
    the looney tunes in the right wing of the GOP.
    Pro-choice republican women leave him… which they will… and he is a stone loser.

    I’m sure he’ll win Franklin County and places like that within the T. He is going to get crushed in the population centers of Pa. by
    any Democrat. I’m actually surprised he’s running for re-election.

    His only advantage is he will have lots of money to smear whatever democrat wins, and will try to distract people for the issues
    He has failed them on.

  4. When people find out that Ali Made Money by Chopping up little Babies and That she refered Women to The Butcher Gossnel for illegal abortions No one will support her

  5. Actually, the natural gas production tax covers about 1.5% of the Texas annual budget. You were close, though!

  6. Corbett sold out the state to the GasCo’s within days of taking office, in exchange for that $2 million in campaign contributions. Voters know we are the only major gas state with no severance tax – ask ’em. We could be getting the majority of our state budget from the frackers – like Texas and Alaska do – and instead we get scraps.

    This Big Gas stooge has zero chance of winning a general election, but he doesn’t care, because his gas buddies have already guaranteed him lifetime employment.

  7. The results of a Quinnipiac Poll are analogous to a poll taken by the operatives within the Allyson Schwartz campaign.
    Corbett, on his worse day, is far superior to Rendell or Allyson Schwartz on their best.

  8. When I wrote the following comment on another PoliticsPA page [regarding the court’s rejection of Corbett’s “Hail Mary” litigation], “Bucks Barrister” praised it; inasmuch as its impact is relevant to this page [as it was to another page, yesterday], it is reprinted…harboring the hope that someone in Harrisburg will [finally!] heed this warning AND ACT ACCORDINGLY [before it’s too late]:

    *

    This entirely-predictable event illustrates what has been posted here on multiple occasions, namely, that Corbett must do ASAP what most R’s are demanding BHO do…namely…HOLD a PRESS-CONFERENCE focused solely upon what he did as A.G. [“soup to nuts”] regarding this scandal.

    He cannot rely upon the public to be “mad” @ the NCAA after PSU concluded a *private* resolution of profound complaints; now, however, he is openly vulnerable to the BIPARTISAN public-view [particularly among PSU-grads, such as myself] that he over-reacted to the sudden release of this scandal by [inter alia] victimizing JoePa.

    Polling prior to this court decision [“47 percent of respondents said that the Penn State situation will be important in their vote for governor next year”] will not improve over time; thus, he must be pro-active [even as his potential legislative achievements–LCB & Pension-Reform–languish] if he is to avoid breaking the streak of re-elected gubernatorial candidates.

  9. Bob Guzzardi, as I said on the Shuster primary challenge page, it is ridiculous to attribute Santorum’s ’06 loss to his endorsement of Specter in ’04.

    Regarding Gov. Corbett, the guy just is not a good politician.  Look next door to NJ.  Christie and Corbett have similar policy objectives, and both were viciously attacked by their opposition for pursuing them.  Christie countered by punching back and defending his stances to the pubic, whereas Corbett just sat there and took it, allowing Dems to define him and drive up his negatives.  Internally, Christie has been able to work with a Democratic legislature to push through his measures, whereas Corbett can’t even get on the same page with our Republican legislature.

    The result?  Christie is up 40 points in his re-election campaign and a Presidential front-runner after that.  Corbett, on the other hand, seems headed for a sound defeat unless he changes course soon.

  10. Will the geniuses at State committee endorse this loser?

    I would be interested in knowing what Republican primary voters think? Selling out the base is not a path to re election. Rick Santorum

  11. Corbutt has been an unmitigated disaster. He has zero chance of being reelected. Zero.

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