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.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1653293/posts
Breaking on Fox Rick Santorum Reading Unclassified Version over 500 Chemical WMDs Found
BECAUSE IF YOUR GOING TO GET RID OF A TRUE PRO-LIFER,YOU HAVE TO FIND A KINDOF PRO-LIFE DEMOCRAT TO RUN AGAINST HIM[Sorry,to shout]
I know we don't want to hear this, but it's just the Casey name, and a sense that Casey is more conservative than most democrats. It is a very sentimental choice, the same concept that will make Tom Kean, Jr. competitive in liberal NJ. Casey's father died after a transplant struggle, and was a local favorite. People are going to vote for the son. Not fair, just political reality.
More Polls.
Still YAWNING.
Can't Santorum get Casey to talk about abortion?
Still way too soon to call this election, IMO.
Because they both are on the same page.
What Santorum needs to do is condemn Planned parenthood for racism and then say Casey thinks killing blacks is okay...BOOOOOOY,would that start a discussion.....But,casey has said he's pro-life and leaves it there..Santorum never engages him in a real discussion about abortion and casey weaves and bobs so no questions touch him...
I really hope that this isnt Conservatives trying to get revenge here or make a point. It must be remembered that Arlen Spector went to bat for Santorum in past relection bid. What Santorum did in supporting Specter was the proper thing to do as a Republican and as a man.
That being said, If people wish to gives the Dems a Senator for life in Penn, in order to prove a point, I hope they see the folly of their ways.
Santorum was looking to make it competitive a few weeks ago, and looks to have collapsed again. I think he just overstayed his welcome. Pennsylvanians are just rejecting him, for whatever reason.
I wish him the best, though. Would be nice to see this tighten up again.
LOLOL! Spincter sux big time, but Toomey supports Santorum and so do I. We grownups don't cut off our nose to spite our face.
MoodyBlu
So you'd throw out one of the few conservatives the northeast has managed to elect? It's that kind of shallow "thinking" that keeps sending Dems and Rinos to Congress.
The people who did this poll seem to have a strong Dem bias. Other polls show Santorum down to single digits I think that is more believable.
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