Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter’s 2010 reelection lead over Republican challenger Pat Toomey has shrunk to a tie with 45 percent for Specter and 44 percent for Toomey, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. And voters say 49 – 40 percent that Sen. Specter does not deserve reelection…
On May 4, Specter led Toomey 53 – 33 percent in a trial heat; his favorable unfavorable ratio among Pennsylvania voters was 52 – 34 percent and voters said 49 – 41 percent he deserved reelection. In a May 28 Quinnipiac University poll, Specter led Toomey 46 – 37 percent.
“Sen. Arlen Specter’s 20-point lead over former Congressman Pat Toomey less than three months ago has virtually vanished,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
“Voters see Sen. Specter much less favorably than they once did and are net negative about giving him a sixth term in the U.S. Senate. Independent voters have shifted narrowly to Toomey 46 – 42 percent and say 53 – 35 percent that Specter does not deserve reelection.”
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Change I can believe in.
BPD on July 22, 2009 at 8:53 AM
Something to enjoy for the moment, even if it is Quinnipiac.
myrenovations on July 22, 2009 at 8:55 AM
Change is coming.
Good Lt on July 22, 2009 at 8:55 AM
Me too!
becki51758 on July 22, 2009 at 8:55 AM
Maybe he’ll switch parties again.
darwin on July 22, 2009 at 8:56 AM
And Spectre still has to survive a primary fight. Is there a serious challenger for Toomey?
MarkTheGreat on July 22, 2009 at 8:57 AM
Toomey! Toomey!
An excellent choice against the lousy Specter.
jencab on July 22, 2009 at 9:00 AM
Uh. The election is a year and four months away.
Tuning Spork on July 22, 2009 at 9:00 AM
Are you kidding me?
Who is Quinnipiac polling, registered Democrats and Communist sympathizers?
…. yeh, I know they’re the same
fogw on July 22, 2009 at 9:01 AM
The Dems are going to kill Specter. I think I mean that metaphorically, but I’m not sure.
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on July 22, 2009 at 9:02 AM
Spector isn’t making it to the general, is he?
Well, either way, I think Pat can win.
tigerinexile on July 22, 2009 at 9:03 AM
Don’t let the door hit you in the butt on your way out, Arlen.
petefrt on July 22, 2009 at 9:03 AM
Pennsylvania is ground zero for revival.
rob verdi on July 22, 2009 at 9:04 AM
tiger,
I think you are right on both counts.
rob verdi on July 22, 2009 at 9:04 AM
Just wait until Specter votes for ObamaCare and CapN’Tax.
BadgerHawk on July 22, 2009 at 9:07 AM
Eat it, Cornyn.
Wethal on July 22, 2009 at 9:08 AM
I expect a massive ACORN invasion next year, with both Specter and Murtha on the ropes.
fogw on July 22, 2009 at 9:09 AM
Yes, but not for Specter. He’s a new fish in the Democrats pond. He has no choice but to vote for every bill they put up or he won’t make it out of the primary.
BadgerHawk on July 22, 2009 at 9:09 AM
But didn’t the beltway Republicans keep telling us that Toomey could never win? Ever? Like the other albatross from Alaska whose career is dead, dead, dead?
promachus on July 22, 2009 at 9:10 AM
Yes, Joe Sestak, who is supposedly gaining on Arlen in the polls, too.
Wethal on July 22, 2009 at 9:10 AM
Prediction: Snarlin’ Arlen loses in the Democratic primary to Sestak. Pennsylvania Democrats hate his guts almost as bad as the Republicans do.
Percy_Peabody on July 22, 2009 at 9:11 AM
The poll touched on that too, and Specter is smoking Sestak. Of course, 3 months ago, he was smoking Toomey.
steveegg on July 22, 2009 at 9:11 AM
Amen
OSUBuciz1 on July 22, 2009 at 9:14 AM
That’s the way to bet.
Mr. D on July 22, 2009 at 9:15 AM
Not being in the polling biz and this is definately great news, why did Quinnipiac sample an equal number of democrats and republicans? Is PA evenly split in voter registration?
veni vidi vici on July 22, 2009 at 9:17 AM
I’m lovin’ my Governor’s numbers, too!
misslizzi on July 22, 2009 at 9:19 AM
Bingo… Specter will never see Toomey.
He jumped ship WAY too early… best thing that could have happened to the GOP.
mankai on July 22, 2009 at 9:20 AM
Just wait until Specter votes for cap and trade and socialized medicine. Then Specter will be 20 points behind Toomey.
Vashta.Nerada on July 22, 2009 at 9:23 AM
2010 is going to be a bad year for incumbents, IMO…in both parties.
therightwinger on July 22, 2009 at 9:37 AM
The republican party forced the only Jewish Senator out of their party and they wonder why they can’t attract Jewish votes?
equality on July 22, 2009 at 9:39 AM
The “equal numbers” only applied to the primary questions. Some of those who participated in that were not asked questions from the remainder of the poll.
The main part of the poll appears to have a several-point +D component.
steveegg on July 22, 2009 at 9:42 AM
The Democrat party is where old RINOs go to die.
Coronagold on July 22, 2009 at 9:47 AM
Our (NC’s) governor’s numbers are plummeting too. She’s down to 25% approval as of yesterday. Woo hoo! The 44% in March was considered low since she just won the election in Nov 08.
mankai on July 22, 2009 at 9:48 AM
equality on July 22, 2009 at 9:39 AM
Say what? Do you actually believe that drivel or you just trooling?
LincolntheHun on July 22, 2009 at 9:56 AM
Listen, bud, no one forced Specter out of the party; he made an opportunistic choice for himself.
Second, having Specter in the party won’t attract Jewish votes. It didn’t when he was in the party, and it won’t now. The Jewish vote is sick. I say that with some love, being Jewish myself, but it’s sick. Jews don’t care about Jewish issues any more; they care about absolute abortion rights. They don’t care about the existential threat to Jews world-over from Islamic terrorism; they care about Christians who love Israel, and the Jews despise them. We have anti-semitism in this country, but 90-plus percent is on the left, where the Jews are comfortable. It’s sick.
Oh, and you’re welcome.
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on July 22, 2009 at 9:58 AM
And featured one who had been put out to pasture by the Democratic Party (Lieberman) at its convention.
And, you know, I never thought of them in terms of being “Jewish Senators” until you noted it. I just thought of Specter as a political opportunist (D to R with Reagan, R to D with Obama) and Lieberman as a patriotic (although economically misguided) Senator.
mankai on July 22, 2009 at 10:05 AM
I’ll gladly take your money.
steveegg on July 22, 2009 at 10:15 AM
Hey when much of the republican party thinks that jews are nothing but tools for the end times, what do you expect?
But seriously, maybe that was one reason why he has been under constant attack for the longest time now, other Senators with similar records have not been under fire as much as him. Hell, all those people who talked conservative and ran up spending got a pass. Some admitted “moderates” may have been under fire, but Specter has been getting this with greater duration and intensity for quite a while now. There may have a bit of anti semitism to it.
LevStrauss on July 22, 2009 at 10:15 AM
Nice identity politics going there, bud. Any explanation why the evil GOP has let Eric Cantor reply to Obama so much this year?
jon1979 on July 22, 2009 at 10:20 AM
Had Specter voted against the stimulus bill, he’d be coasting to re-election and Pat Toomey would be continuing his fight for the GOP nomination for the PA gubernatorial race in 2010.
He didn’t, Toomey chose to challenge him, and then Specter ran away instead of waiting for his numbers to rebound (which they really could have — remember the trouble Lindsey Graham was in, in 2007?).
Too bad, so sad.
Toomsday is coming. (As Jim Geraghty put it.)
tigerinexile on July 22, 2009 at 10:20 AM
Equality’s IDIOT analogies:
Republicans can’t win California because Richard Nixon (a Cali native) was ‘forced out’ and resigned
battleoflepanto1571 on July 22, 2009 at 10:26 AM
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
Give me a break.
thegreatbeast on July 22, 2009 at 10:28 AM
That’s ridiculously good news.
And based on my analysis, Quinnipiac was the most accurate pollster of 2008. Check it out.
http://thirdbasepolitics.blogspot.com/2009/07/pollsters-who-is-best.html
DJ Tablesauce on July 22, 2009 at 10:29 AM
Better: Gov. Ed Rendell has a 39% approval rating
apparently his refusing to sign a budget and leaving thousands of govt workers without a paycheck is…. HURTING him!
battleoflepanto1571 on July 22, 2009 at 10:43 AM
WTF are you talking about? It is not because he is Jewish but because he is a selfserving parasite who has been on the government teat for longer than a large percentage of the population of his state has been alive who was too much of a coward to stand up and fight for his job.
Nathan_OH on July 22, 2009 at 10:46 AM
You guys are going to kick him out in the primaries. What’s that say about you?
BadgerHawk on July 22, 2009 at 10:53 AM
Nathan_OH on July 22, 2009 at 10:46 AM
My advice: Don’t waste your time.
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on July 22, 2009 at 10:54 AM
That’s the dumbest argument I have ever heard, he is elected for five terms and I am pretty sure he is been Jewish the whole time. But he hasn’t always been a Democrat or been so nakedly self serving. He has only himself to blame if he doesn’t get elected.
Cindy Munford on July 22, 2009 at 10:54 AM
lol, poor Arlen. He’ll probably lose in the Dem primary.
marmaran on July 22, 2009 at 10:58 AM
No surprise at all.
The pendulum started to swing a while back.
Seriously, I only hope it has not swung too early in favor of conservatism.
connertown on July 22, 2009 at 11:06 AM
I didn’t even know he was Jewish until this thread. I suppose I’m a racist for not caring about those types of things.
BadgerHawk on July 22, 2009 at 11:07 AM
I don’t know if I knew or not, who thinks about that stuff? My previous comment gets an F for grammar. Must learn to proof read. As for being a racist, if you vote Republican it is apparently mandatory or at least according to the Dems.
Cindy Munford on July 22, 2009 at 11:12 AM
Bing. It seems to me that they are always 5 – 7 points behind Rasmussen on the lib-cons spectrum. So that’s even better news.
Jaibones on July 22, 2009 at 11:14 AM
It is a Quinnipiac University poll, so it has to be taken with a grain of salt. But Obama won the election by 53% and only 57% of eligible voters voted. This kind of poll tends to include a large proportion of nonvoters who are likely Obama voters had they bothered or had been responsible enough to cast a vote. So if the Obama’s job approval number approachs the number of people who voted for him in 2008, there must be a lot of people who are now regretting their vote for him.
bayview on July 22, 2009 at 11:16 AM
LMAO. You know this effing nitwit is a white, non-Jewish liberal, and she thinks she’ll come here and lecture us about voter demographics. She needs to read Jeffrey Lord’s piece about Adolph the White and MoDo’s Incredible Whiteness of Being.
“You don’t have anyone black in your family – you must be a racist!”
Hey, inequality, didn’t the Democrats just run a primary challenger against the only practicing orthodox Jew in the Senate and force him out of the party (Lieberman – Independent)? I believe he spoke at our convention to a reception that bordered on adulation.
STFU.
Jaibones on July 22, 2009 at 11:20 AM
Let me break it down for you in simpler terms.
It’s BS.
fogw on July 22, 2009 at 11:21 AM
Hey, gang – today feels like a great day to email John Cornyn and tell him in no uncertain terms to GFH. The SRCC will be entering the booth in November 2010 with no candidate in the PA Senate election.
What a bunch of RINO PiecesOS.
Jaibones on July 22, 2009 at 11:37 AM
Nah, they endorsed Toomey:
http://spectator.org/blog/2009/07/14/nrsc-endorses-toomey
It’s kinda like… the Soviet Union declaring war on Japan in August 1945, I guess… but they’ll chalk it up as a victory of theirs in 2010.
tigerinexile on July 22, 2009 at 11:58 AM
this is no fluke. If Bush and Rove hadn’t pushed hard at the last minute for Benedict Arlen back on 04, Toomey would have beat him then. Thanks a lot, guys.
And this time around, he’s got the Albatross of the Porkulus hanging around his neck. He’s history. He will lose to Toomey, if he squeaks by his Dem challenger, Crazy Uncle Joe Smokestack.
james23 on July 22, 2009 at 12:14 PM
You think that the Republicans drove him out because he was Jewish?
OKay, I just don’t what to think when someone writes something so foolish.
Hey, all you Republicans, here’s a Joooooooo, let’s run him out of the party….
Please, you must put a /sarc tag on those type of posts, people will think you are serious.
That is probably why we don’t like Boxer, or Nadler, or Leiberman, Frank…yeah we hate him because he is a Jew, otherwise he is a great man, or who else is a Jew, I want to know so I can “use them” then throw them out…
right2bright on July 22, 2009 at 1:06 PM