Casey and Smith to meet for Senate debate next week

The candidates in Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race are finally going to meet for a debate, and it happens just as the race has tightened.

Incumbent Democrat Bob Casey and Republican challenger Tom Smith will meet a week from Friday, Oct. 26 at the studios of WPVI Channel 6 in Philadelphia in a debate co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters. The debate will be broadcast the following Sunday, Smith’s campaign manager Jim Conroy tells me.

Casey has led Smith for most of the race, but two recent polls show Smith pulling nearly even. The Muhlenberg college survey shows Casey leading 41-39 percent. A new Quinnipiac poll gives Casey a 48-45 percent margin.

Another survey based on automated telephone interviews by Public Policy Polling showed Casey with an 11-point spread, 50 to 39 percent.