Posted on 04/24/2009 10:06:12 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter badly trails primary challenger Patrick J. Toomey, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll 13 months before GOP voters will choose their Senate nominee.
The survey, taken of 490 likely Republican voters on April 21, had Toomey leading Specter by 21 percentage points, 51 percent to 30 percent. Forty-two percent of respondents said that they had either a "very favorable" or "somewhat favorable" impression of Specter, compared to 55 percent of Republicans who said they had "somewhat unfavorable" or "very unfavorable" feelings about the senator.
The comparable numbers for Toomey, a former House member from Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, were 66 percent favorable and 19 percent unfavorable.
The 2010 primary, which will be held in May of that year, is a rematch of a 2004 primary that Specter won by 51 percent to 49 percent. Toomey, the former president of the fiscally conservative Club for Growth, has sharply criticized Specter for supporting some of President Obama's economic policies.
The only Democrat thus far who has declared a Senate campaign is Joe Torsella, who headed the National Constitution Center on Philadelphia's Independence Mall and who lost a 2004 Democratic House primary to current 13th District Democratic Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz.
CQ Politics presently rates the Pennsylvania Senate race as No Clear Favorite.
and he is?
Friday, April 24, 2009
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%.
his 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.
In 2004, Specter benefitted from the fact that the official Republican establishment strongly backed his candidacy against Toomey. Early indications are that he will not enjoy such support this time around.
Former Speaker of the state House (Florida).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Rubio
I don’t know a whole lot about him, but he sounds a lot better than Sorry Charlie.
is he the one who said he could change his senate run into a run for the governorship?
If Toomey pulls this off, I have one question. WHY hasn’t this happened before? For that matter, why do so many people, especially Ted Kennedy, get basically a lifetime pass to the show? Are the masses really that uncaring that they go by name-recognition and nothing else?
Another NO for the big O.
National Committee has stated they will support him but that won’t save him in the primaries. The primary voters are the more conservatives, Spectre got through the primary last time by the skin of his teeth and that was before a lot of the crap he’s pulled... The porkulus vote was it for him in terms of being able to survive a primary. He will not come through the PA Republican primary as the nominee.
Now that doesn’t mean that he won’t run as an independent in the general and win.
I must tell you that I have read your home page many times....you even motivated me to read up on Sulla.....and I agree that we must guard against the WAY we fight our enemies. We need the highest motives and the most honorable candidates as we go forward to avenge our Constitution from the ravages of the left.
Terry fought the good fight in a ruthless manner...but did not cross the line,a la Acorn. Unfortunately, I must admit when faced with these tactics the wolf rises in my breast to meet fire with fire. Your counsel to the movement is well taken.
Try YEEHAA! Once in a while. You will stand out!
So will Specter try to make a Right turn or a Left turn to pick up support? I’m guessing left...but either way he’s screwed.
Did he? He might have. Dammit, if so he and Crist must have cut a deal.
Unless we can draft Connie Mack IV, looks like we are stuck with the suntanned metrosesxual RINO Charlie Crist.
One of the more confusing questions over the last two decades is how/why Iowans keep easily electing Harkin AND Grassley? Is the Hawkeye electore schizophrenic? Tat is about the “oddest couple” ever of long-term concurrently serving Senators...
Bush made the mistake of trusting and campaigning for this idiot.
I think John Cornyn has done so this time.
Will they never learn?
This is GREAT news!!!!!!!!!
“The only Democrat thus far who has declared a Senate campaign is Joe Torsella”
WHY should the Dems BOTHER to field a candidate as long as Arlen Spector is running?
Are the dunces at the RNC STILL backing Spector??!!!!
Spectre will not survive the PA primary, he got by the last time by the skin of his teeth due to endorcements by Bush and the small majority held by R’s. This time R’s are in the minority, those that held their nose and voted for him last time won’t do it this time.
The support of the porkulus assures that Spectre will lose the republican primaries. Now, again, that doesn’t mean he won’t run as an independent and possibly win the state in the general, but I see no calculus in which Spectre wins the R. primaries.
If Rendell decides NOT to run, I look for Arlen to seek the Dem nomination..he’d cross the aisle now and caucus with the Dems..
Glad to hear that my little note was helpful. I lived in NJ for much of my life, up until 1974, then for a little while around 1980 to 1983. Like you I lived all over the place, the longest period was in what is now called Old Bridge. I am sure that you know many of the people I did, especially Joseph Leo and Richard Plechner, two of the founders of YAF.
but Crist just got married....to a woman in Florida!
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