Posted on 03/14/2012 10:47:11 AM PDT by smoothsailing
Pennsylvania Republicans are going for favorite son Rick Santorum big time, giving the former U.S. Senator a 36 - 22 percent lead over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the Keystone State's presidential primary, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Texas U.S. Rep. Ron Paul has 12 percent, with 8 percent for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
In a head-to-head matchup, Santorum tops Romney 52 - 32 percent among Republican voters, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds.
If Santorum gets to November, he gets 44 percent of Pennsylvania voters, to 45 percent for President Barack Obama - too close to call. In other possible November matchups: President Obama tops Romney 46 - 40 percent; Obama beats Gingrich 50 - 37 percent; The president leads Paul 45 - 40 percent. In the four-person Republican contest, Santorum leads Romney 41 - 18 percent among women and 30 - 27 percent among men, 50 - 21 percent among Tea Party members, 44 - 20 percent among self-described conservatives and 46 - 17 percent among white evangelical Christians. Romney leads 29 - 20 percent among self-described moderates.
"Pennsylvania Republicans are turning to their native son, former Sen. Rick Santorum. The last time we surveyed the Keystone State, during the Gingrich boomlet in December, the former House Speaker led the GOP pack with 31 percent, followed by Gov. Mitt Romney with 17 percent and Santorum with 9 percent," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
"Pennsylvania Republican women like Santorum over Romney more than men."
"Santorum's lead among conservatives, Tea Party members and white evangelical Christians is what we have found in other states," Malloy added.
"What we've also seen in other states is that Romney comes from behind, riding a tidal wave of negative advertising. Whether attack ads work against a native son remains to be seen."
....
From March 7 - 12, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,256 registered voters with a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points. Live interviewers call land lines and cell phones. The survey includes 508 Republicans with a margin of error of +/- 4.4 percentage points.
What in particular leads you to worry about this? I’m curious.
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I can tell you what bothers me about it (Santorum negotitating for the VP slot). We need Marco Rubio in the VP slot. He can cut into Obozo’s Hispanic vote, big-time, and we need Florida. Whoever wins Florida, wins the White House.
Don't worry, you will find out soon enough, that Santorum is far from “squeaky” clean.
“So much for Santorum not being competitive in his own state...”
Yup.
Not surprising since Rick won 4 out of 5 races in PA.
His squeaky voice didn’t give you a clue until now?
Newt has probably figured out by now that the presidency is out of his reach. If he can negotiate the VP slot on the eventual ticket, that will be the best perch available to him to launch the “movement” you speak of.
Pittsburgh could be nuetralized by the fact that Santorum is from the burgh suburb of Penn Hills. Local boy makes good and all that.
Philadelphia, now that's a problem. I'd like to give Philly to Jersey, then PA would be almost Alabama. :)
That's what I was going to say. Why were posters saying the opposite last week? Obviously it wasn't a given.
I’m neither listening to, or watching any political ads. I’ve had my mind pretty much made up since the start.(although I was wavering briefly toward Gingrich) Even ignored the Cain gossip at the time.
Romney could spend a trillion $, it won’t change my mind toward him.
When Newt first announced, there was nothing but ridicule on this forum about his candidacy, really no support to speak of at all. But somehow he got repeated ad nauseum support after January 2012. Even as he continues to fade, his backers are more determined than ever.
Unless he finds out why Mitch McConnell is “caver in chief,” the truth squad will mean nothing.
Well, LBJ didn’t bat an eye when he accepted Joseph P. Kennedy’s offer in 1960.
Yep. Much to my shame, Ron Paul is a fellow Gettysburg College alumnus...
You are absolutely right. I've been saying something similar for a long time.
Having a Southerner on the ticket or listening carefully to Southern concerns has been important for quite a while to Republicans; we couldn't win without winning the South. At this point, however, the Solid South has changed from “yellow dog Democrats” to become “yellow dog Republicans” — i.e., most of those states will vote for the Republican even if he's a yellow dog — and what Republicans need to worry about is winning traditional “rustbelt” states.
I'm painfully aware that Rick Santorum has cast some problematic votes which made sense to his blue-collar constituents in Pennsylvania but are being perceived by Republican voters elsewhere was being pro-union or anti-business. I'm not saying that Santorum’s votes were good, although as a states-rights advocate who believes elected officials need to do what their constituents want, I can understand those votes even if I don't agree.
What is being lost in the debate is that those votes are the sort of vote that can attract moderate and conservative Democrats in precisely the states Republicans **MUST** win to win the presidency.
The old “Reagan Democrat” coalition worked. “Reagan Democrats” are much less important today nationally than they were in the 1980s, but they are still key to winning certain states such as Pennsylvania, and Santorum is uniquely positioned to win those states.
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