No, 13 mostly urban counties voted for Kerry (Red), and only by 145,000 (and anyone that trusts the vote in Philadelphia County as legitimate is out of their mind). The other 54 voted for Bush (Blue).
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.
The number is very small, and they are jackasses. Babies will not win this election if Casey wins; he'll caucus with the Dems and find other facile rationalizations to filibuster Federal judges. Like his father, he is a clueless poseur who has ambitions for offices to which he has no qualifications other than name recognition. "Conservatives" who refuse to fight him are giving the Dems 2% of the Senate for life.
I'd say Dr. Coburn is the most Conservative, but I agree that not only PA Conservatives, but PA Republicans (not necessarily the same thing) not voting for Santorum are fools.
I think Santorum needs to go hard on Casey views on abortion.
Is Casey a Kerry or Kaine type of pro-Life , you know when they say they are personally pro-life but what goes on between a women and her privacy decisions blah blah..
I am reminded of Ken Salazar a pro-lifer when running for office, not so pro-life as per his actual votes in the senate. The Dems will say anything to get elected.
Trusting a Dem to make abortion illegal is the one of the most ridiculous thing i have heard, it is like trusting a tooth fairy.
I hope conservatives in PA are not that stupid as you make them out to be.
I hope conservatives in PA are not that stupid as you make them out to be.
The state voted for Kerry...
I thought the margin of Kerry win in PA was around 10,000 votes, hugely tainted by voting fraud in Philly.
The MSM concentrated on Bush win in Ohio and called it narrow even though there were more than 100000 plus votes difference.
I don't buy that 18% margin. Casey, Jr. has done nada to obtain it and Santorum clearly chipped away at his deficit, and nothing has occurred for him to have suddenly plummetted. I doubt that he is any more than 6 points down.
No, 13 mostly urban counties voted for Kerry (Red), and only by 145,000 (and anyone that trusts the vote in Philadelphia County as legitimate is out of their mind). The other 54 voted for Bush (Blue).
Jimmy Carter and crew should be stationing themselves in Philadelphia to monitor the fairness of the next election. He doesn't have to go to a third-world country.
If Casey wins, the Democrats in Washington will force him to follow the party line. When it's time to confirm a judge, he'll vote the way they tell him.
From National Review:
----Is your opinion of State Treasurer Bob Casey Jr. favorable, unfavorable, mixed, or haven't you heard enough about him?
26% Favorable, 11% Unfavorable, 20% mixed and 42% haven't heard enough.
Come on PA media most of that 42% falls on your shoulders. How about you start focusing on Casey instead of Santorum's house in Penn Hills.----
Here lies the problem. Santorum is spending too much time justifying himself to the voters, while Casey just sits back and chuckles.
The problem is that many Catholics now have a real choice between two pro-life candidates, which has been hurting the Democrats across the country (the loss of the Catholic vote because the staunch pro-abortion stance of most Democrats).
Also, Santorium has done some questionable things, such as asking the Capital Police in DC visit his Pennsylvania home because of Security issues. This looks bad to the Pennsylanian populace - Santorium not trusting the police in his own state.
Because of the bias of the media, Republicans have to work much harder.
You're right, then-state Auditor Don Bailey would have won a large cross-over vote. It's too bad that he lost in 1988 to uber-RINO Barbara Hafer, whose career speaks for itself.
DJ, you got the colors backwards.
Remember, Red State/Blue State are now fixed terms, not colors that can be used indiscriminately.
Perhaps the GOP's top priority in PA should be electing Diana Irey.
Traditionally, blue is the color of the incumbent. The liberal media doesn't want red to be associatted with the Far Left.
Yes, Murtha needs to go. But, don't forget protecting Jim Gerlach in the PA-06 and helping Lynn Swann tackle Rendell.
Because Casey is not a complete idiot... Santorum has a huge bullseye on him by the rabid leftist, they have made unseating him their top priority... Casey is going to be able to get money and clout he could not remotely have gotten had he run against Specter.
Casey though is basically riding on two things, his fathers name.. and trust me he ain't daddy, and a bit of a backlash against Santorum... Its still relatively early, its really going to matter how Santorum plays his race....
Casey for the most part I haven't even seen or heard from on anything other than immigration and he stuck his foot in his mouth on that one.
Still a lot of time between now and NOV... some folks may not be crazy about Santorum, but by election day Casey won't just be this "not santorum" guy.. who he is, will be well defined and the race will be much different.
Actually your analysis is incorrect... PA is moving REDDER every election cycle. Pa has a large huge red T in the middle of the state, a huge blue death trap around philly and a blue sinkhole around Pittsburgh.
Now Pittsburgh region has been moving republican slowly for many cycles.. don't believe me, look at the county by county presidential elections in 2000 v 2004... Allegheny count (Pittsburgh Proper) may never go Republican, but the remainder of the 7-13 counties around Pittsburg are moving solidly into the Republican territory.
Philly is the last bastion of hard core liberal support in the state, and that is the part of the state where any republican must at LEAST make an ok showing if they want to win the state... they could get massive amounts of support from the rest of the state, but if they don't come out of Philly with at least some support they can't win.
PA is a red state, with a suburb of NYC in its eastern border dragging it down.
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