In an internal poll from the Tom Wolf campaign, the former Revenue Secretary finally crossed the 50% threshold, earning 52% of support.
For the first time in a poll, State Treasurer Rob McCord eked past Rep. Allyson Schwartz to come in second place with 14%; Schwartz took 12%.
Former DEP Secretary Katie McGinty came in fourth with 5%.
Just 16% said they were undecided.
Wolf’s favorability was also quite high; 59% favorable to 8% unfavorable. McCord again came in second with 34% favorable to 10% unfavorable. Schwartz earned 30% favorable to 11% unfavorable and McGinty again in fourth with 18% favorable, 14% unfavorable.
The poll was executed by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and surveyed 600 likely Democratic primary voters, conducted March 31-April 3, 2014. This survey employs a rigorous screening process, including past primary vote history and vote intention, to ensure the respondents reflect voters who will make it to the poll. As a result, this sampling methodology generates fewer undecideds.
This was not released by the campaign, nor did they intend to make it public, and with all internal polling, its results should be taken with the proverbial grain of salt.
Governor Corbett’s campaign used the release of the poll to hit Wolf again on the story from last weekend about the financial history of his business.
“Just a few days after the Philadelphia Inquirer exposed some serious questions about Secretary Tom Wolf’s business dealings, a poll mysteriously falls out of the sky showing former chief tax collector Tom Wolf with an alleged commanding lead over his fellow liberal Democrats,” Communications Director Chris Pack told PoliticsPA. “I wonder if the polled asked the question, “How likely would you be to vote for Secretary Tom Wolf if you knew he is financing his campaign with funds he received from the Pennsylvania retirees pension system who lost tens of millions on an investment in his company?”
17 Responses
Schwartz campaign is desperate. She is not a competitive statewide candidate in the primary, let alone the general.
Too early. I’m giving up now!
Push poll. Sorry, to early in the morning for me to make public comments!
The smarter Democrats and there are very few of us have been wondering since he announced how he could be in financial trouble 4 years ago and have so much money now? I guess we finally got our answer. Now the rest of our stupid party members are going to give him the primary. Looks like 4 more years for Corbett. Wolf is nothing more than a Republican in Democratic clothes. Bitch about big business when you are big business… How stupid is my party? and robbie whichone of Wolf’s paid minions are you?
My 24 year old son, who votes in every election, received a push pull type of “survey” on the evening of April 4th. As soon as he said he would likely vote for McCord, the “survey” turned into a major negative ad campaign aimed at McCord. One of the last questions asked, before the demographic questions, was now that he knows these things about McCord, who would he likely vote for: Wolf or McCord. Methinks the nastiness has begun!
To Greg Samsa:
The poll not mentioned unfortunately, but was alluded to is this one:
http://www.fandm.edu/fandmpoll/survey-releases
46% Undecided
Can be also taken with a grain of salt…but dollars to donuts a more rigorous and thus a potentially more accurate poll.
In short, the race is all about GOTV on May 20 matched with impactful media.
Robbie – Wolf 2014 = Corbett 2014
Why would I panic this far out? You are trying to hang on based on a few months of no substance feel good ads. That has to be nerve racking. The election isn’t today or held via internal polling of any candidate although we know that’s what you’d like everyone to believe. It isn’t over til it’s over.
I hope for the sake of the D’s he has a significant line of credit.
@jb you won’t have to wait for brabender to run negative ads on wolf .I’m sure mccord or Schwartz are about to go negative.if they don’t bring up wolfs past.He can jump in his jeep and cruise to victory.@Robbie you may just have anger issues .I’m sure your state benefits cover anger management.
@JB — Are you panicking because your favorite candidate (McCord) will probably finish in 3rd place in the Democratic primary? If your guy has internal polls more positive for him than this poll (showing Wolf beating McCord by 38%) or any public polls (Wolf beating McCord by 25% and more), why doesn’t he release them? I know why, he doesn’t have any polls showing the race is close. Prove me wrong.
BTW, “milquetoast” is going to beat your guy by a lot. How will you feel when your guy comes in a distant 3rd place on May 20 after spending $2 million of his own money?
Everyone knows internal polls are skewed to favor the candidate conducting the poll.
If I was a wolf acolyte I’d be terrified at the prospect of being a self-funder that can’t self-fund. Who makes a contribution to their campaign with half of it being loans?
This race will be much much closer. Milquetoast and no money is no way to win a general election.
Wait til you see Brabender’s negative ads if this guy is the nominee.
Do you know how you can tell who is losing without looking at the scoreboard? It is the person complaining and calling names. @hannah arendt and @joe goebbels proved that. Thank you.
I’ll take a minute to explain how polls work. Every campaign polls. Well-funded campaigns poll a lot. Not just Wolf’s campaign, but also Schwartz, McCord, McGinty, and Corbett. If any opponent had poll results that looked good, that candidate would release the poll to rebut the public polls and this leaked poll.
While I wait for “@truth”, @frank, @steveinpa, @jjcnpa, @sean ryan, @lariat or any Schwartz, McCord or Corbett supporter to claim these polls don’t matter and their candidates will win, I say show me your polls. I know those people think they say differently, but they don’t or they would be made public to rebut the released polls.
Mr. Goebbels is exactly correct. My seminal work, the Origins of Totalitarianism, made the case that the tools and techniques of the right – the Nazis – were the same as those of the left – the Soviets. The means are the same and they lead to totalitarianism which is a suppression of individual freedom and full participation in the community. It is not coincidental that both American political parties use the same tools and techniques as the Nazis and Soviets.
“goebbels”?? seriously?
Aren’t you even aware that “repeating the same narrow, simple set of messages” is pretty much the M.O. of FoxNews and the GOP?
I would take intentionally released polls with a grain of salt (as well as intentionally “leaked”). This is especially true when a candidate is weak, or having a poor showing in other polls. However, in this case, the results seem pretty much in line with public polls.
Whether Wolf is really over 50% or still at 40% doesn’t really make much of a difference when he’s more than 20 points above his nearest rival.
So, I’d file this poll under “interesting” but not under “shocking”.
To have the resources to repeat the same narrow, simple set of messages is essential to control of populations and hence control of government.
@but so 16% is now greater than 52%?
Here’s one:
If the primary were held today, someone named UNDECIDED would win.
-Bye bye arrogant Mr. McCord. We barely knew thee (actually we knew your ego pretty well.) Oh, you’ve already been elected statewide twice? Who knew!? (Too bad your TV ads never worked out.) Is it inappropriate to mention your job outsourcing to India? Peace out McCord.
-Later Allyson Schwartz, oh what could have been. It’s 2000 all over again for you when you lost to Ron Klink. Yes, Ron Klink. Maybe you can run again in 2016 and lose in a primary to Kathleen Kane? Not a bad idea.
-Katie who? I’ve got nothin’… An apparently neither do you in this poll.