IT'S FOR THE PUPPIES!
Posted on 10/17/2002 6:42:05 AM PDT by BlackRazor
October 17, 2002 -- Rendell Is Pulling Away In Governor's Race, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Democrat gets some GOP support
Democrat Ed Rendell has opened a commanding 56 - 36 percent lead over Republican State Attorney General Mike Fisher in their race for Pennsylvania governor, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. The survey of likely voters includes voters who are leaning towards a candidate.
In a September 18 poll by the independent Quinnipiac University, Rendell led Fisher 51 - 44 percent.
Rendell leads 81 - 14 percent among Democratic likely voters, 60 - 31 percent among independent voters and gets a strong 28 percent of Republican voters to Fisher's 62 percent. The Democrat leads among men, women and union households as well.
From October 9 -15, Quinnipiac University surveyed 740 Pennsylvania likely voters with a margin of error of +/- 3.6 percent.
"There is no good news anywhere in this poll for Mike Fisher. The numbers are moving heavily in the wrong direction for the Attorney General and Ed Rendell is pulling away. The former mayor has picked up significantly among men and union households since our last poll a month ago," said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
"The major reason Mr. Fisher has not been able to make this a close race is because he is yielding almost three out of 10 Republican voters to Rendell," Richards added.
"These Rendell Republicans not surprisingly are concentrated in significant numbers in the Philadelphia suburbs where Rendell is well-known and Fisher is not. Rendell Republicans tend to be married, middle income voters between the ages of 45 and 64. They voted overwhelmingly for Bush for President, but they now strongly believe that Rendell is the better candidate to solve the property tax mess in Pennsylvania."
Rendell's favorability is 46 - 20 percent, with 24 percent mixed and 7 percent saying they haven't heard enough to form an opinion.
Fisher gets a slightly negative 24 - 28 percent favorability rating, with 25 percent mixed and 20 percent who haven't heard enough to form an opinion.
Pennsylvania voters say 48 - 25 percent that Rendell is closer to their point of view on property tax reform.
Rendell also is closer to their view on gun control, voters say 34 - 28 percent with 33 percent undecided. The Democrat edges out the Republican on abortion, 35 - 27 percent, with 34 percent undecided.
The Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., conducts public opinion surveys in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and the nation as a public service and for research.
For all practical purposes this one has been over for awhile, but this is the final nail in the coffin. We're now starting to see the other independent pollsters moving towards SurveyUSA's blow-out numbers.
For all the heat SurveyUSA takes, there seems to be a trend this year of that organization picking up movement before anyone else (NJ Senate, FL Governor, PA Governor... we shall see about CA where they now have Simon down 15 points).
If you want on or off my poll ping list, let me know!
And the really sad pathetic part of all of this is these so-called Rendell Republicans haven’t figured out that the Governor has NO SAY WHAT-SO-EVER on solving the property tax mess here in Pennsylvania! This is strictly a LOCAL, county by county, township by township tax issue that the Governor has no effect on!
I've got no problems with Survey USA. They do tend to have a significantly lower # of undecideds than other orgs. But I think you may be premature in crediting them with some trends. The CA gov's race comes to mind. The White House (a.k.a. Rove) is talking about President Bush going back out there because Simon is within 3-6 points.
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