Poll Watch: Senator Arlen Specter in Trouble for Re-Election – Trails Pat Toomey By 21 Points
Vice President Joe Biden, center right, and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., center left, shake hands as Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., left and Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., applaud during a reception at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Friday, Feb. 27, 2009. The reception was held to honor Specter for his vote for the economic stimulus package –Or Was Biden wishing Specter a happy retirement?
Incumbent Senator Arlen Specter trails former Congressman Pat Toomey by 21 points in an early look at Pennsylvania’s 2010 Republican Primary. Fifty-one percent (51%) of Republican voters statewide say they’d vote for Toomey while just 30% would support Specter.
Specter is viewed favorably by 42% of Pennsylvania Republicans and unfavorably by 55%, according to a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of voters in the state. Those are stunningly poor numbers for a long-term incumbent senator. Specter was first elected to the Senate in 1980.
Toomey, who served in the House from 1999 to 2005, earns positive reviews from 66% and negative comments from just 19%.
Though Specter has been in the Senate for 28 years, he has struggled to maintain grassroots support within his own party during recent years. Six years ago, the incumbent barely survived a primary challenge and defeated the more conservative Toomey by just two points, 51% to 49%. He then went on to win the general election in 2004 by a 53% to 42% margin.
This time around, things could be even more challenging for Specter. He was one of only three Republicans in the Congress to vote for President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus plan. Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Pennsylvania Republicans said they were less likely to vote for Specter because of his support for the stimulus package.
In another sign that could be troubling for Specter, the current poll finds that 79% of Pennsylvania Republicans have a favorable opinion of the “Tea Party†protests against big government spending and higher taxes held across the nation last week. Thirty percent (30%) know someone personally who took part. Overall, 82% of Pennsylvania Republicans say that the federal government has too much money and too much power. Just four percent (4%) say it has too little.
Specter leads Toomey by just eight points among moderate Republicans statewide, but Toomey holds a solid advantage among conservative Republicans.
But, the question is can Pat Toomey beat a Democrat?
It may make little difference anyway since Arlen Specter has shown weakness in general election polls.
Stay tuned as it continues to be early in the 2010 election cycle.
Technorati Tags: Arlen Specter, Pat Toomey
2 Comments
Sonny
It is increasingly clear all sitting members of Congress must go. Dems, Repblicans and in-between. Forget the myth of Green House Gases being toxic rather stop the immediate danger of ‘White House Gases’; produced by both Houses and Washington burning up our patience, our money, our rights, our respect and their responsibilities! They need to feel uneasy, un-comfortable just as we are when we go to work. Bad performance and your out! Let’s remind them, all of them, ‘we the people’ are their employers! And as Donald Trump would say, ‘YOU’RE FIRED’.
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