Posted on 06/21/2006 4:00:10 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
Sen. Rick Santorum's approval rating has skidded to a four-year low, the latest sign of distress for the outspoken conservative and ally of President Bush, according to a poll released Wednesday.
The lead for Santorum's Democratic opponent, state Treasurer Bob Casey, has stretched to 18 percentage points since early May.
Casey leads Santorum by 52 percent to 34 percent - the biggest margin since October, when the numbers were the same, according to the Quinnipiac University poll.
Only 38 percent of respondents said they approved of the way Santorum, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, is handling his job. Forty-five percent said they disapproved and 16 percent did not express an opinion.
It was the first time Santorum's approval rating dropped below 40 percent since Quinnipiac began measuring it in June 2002.
Bush's approval rating in the state rebounded somewhat in the latest poll, to 34 percent from 30 percent in May. The proportion of Pennsylvania voters who approved of Bush's handling of the war in Iraq increased to 35 percent from 29 percent.
"Senator Santorum appears to be his own worst enemy in his battle for re-election," said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Connecticut-based university's polling institute.
In the May survey, Casey, the son of late Democratic Gov. Robert P. Casey, led Santorum by 49 percent to 36 percent.
More than 40 percent of Casey's supporters said they are more against electing Santorum to a third term than for Casey, the poll showed.
Virginia Davis, a Santorum campaign spokesman, said polls are unreliable at this stage in the campaign. Santorum plans to air the first statewide TV commercials of his campaign on Friday, she said. Larry Smar, a spokesman for the Casey campaign, agreed that it is too early to read too much into the polls but that Casey's continuing strength in polling bodes well for the November election.
Quinnipiac conducted telephone interviews with 1,076 Pennsylvania voters between June 13 and Monday. The results carry a sampling margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
I never said I supported Specter over Toomey.
You really ought to stop with the non-sequiturs.
Just ask Ed Rendell, he'll be glad to tell you all about it.
Thornborough was a good conservative who dropped out from the primary in '86.
Why is Santorum not getting numbers?
I admire Rick Santoram very much. He was very good because he was sincere on the banning of partial birth abortion. He may lose but he may win in the end one of the desires of his heart. I wish he was my Senator. Maybe he will move to a more RED STATE (Think Arkansas)and run again. Come on down..PA is going Blue slowly.
/sarcasm
Santorum is perhaps the most conservative Republican in the Senate.
As if Casey's going to remain pro-life assuming he wins the race. I seriously doubt it. The one good thing about this race, is that Dims are now acknowledging the strength of the pro-life movement and is no longer ridiculing it or taking it for granted.
Politicians never engage in real discussions. They never answer questions with real answers.
Santorum is dead meat. He made himself look too foolish too often, in a state where he is to the right of the state. One little example was when he said the national weather service should be shut down, and weather tracking should be left to private industry. Yes I know, Santorum has a better shot at election to the Senate than Kathleen Harris does. Keep hope alive.
Casey's father was eloquently pro-life.
If Santourm could pull a few ann coulter like questions.such as "so,bob how many years will it be before the democrats wipe out the black population with abortion????? Will you democrats start in on the poor whites after that???? I'll bet you would see Bobby open up like the great volcano....
Yes,his father condemned democrats publicly for their pro abort stance....You can't get casey jr to talk about abortion,let alone condemn democrats for their pro racist stance.....He wants to win and doesn't want to piss off the democrats he will have yo work with...
Here in PA some conservatives are angry with Santorum for campaigning for Specter. They're now saying they don't care if Santorum loses.
And conservatives most important issue is abortion from what I can see in Pennsylvania so it makes it real easy to vote for Casey. He is pretty conservative for a democrat on the abortion issue. It makes it very easy to support him. Santorum has not gotten abortion illegal in Pennsylvania so let's give Casey a shot at making abortion illegal. Since it is my most important issue, I would not worry who won this one. The bottom line is that babies win this election finally!!!
Casey is not that pro-life...He won't even talk about the subject for fear of pissing off democrat voters....You wait...After the election he will turn into a regular pro-choice let women kill their babies up to 9 months democrat....In fact,I'll wager within 6 months of his win,he won't even remember what pro-life is!!!!!
Casey is not that pro-life...He won't even talk about the subject for fear of pissing off democrat voters....You wait...After the election he will turn into a regular pro-choice let women kill their babies up to 9 months democrat....In fact,I'll wager within 6 months of his win,he won't even remember what pro-life is!!!!!
I hope you are wrong...actually I hope that both of us are wrong and that Santorum wins even though it is probably a long shot. The only reason I would be sane on election day is because Casey is "pro life", but would not want to risk it because you could be very right and he could certainly forget that he is pro-life the minute he swears in.
PA voters like those of DC can't help voting for anything that says Democrat.
How can you say that? I am from Pennsylvania and we have two Republican Senators and had a governor that was Republican until the President took him. The state is pretty red in most cases.
Polls by Quinnipiac? They are worthless, they are so false. Completely manipulated by the left to give the desired result.
However on another thread we are bragging about the polls in Washington state that has Cantwell in a close race. Which is it that we believe? Polls that only go for us?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.