Latest survey shows stable leads for Wolf, Casey

A new poll from Franklin and Marshall College has found that for the most part, Pennsylvania’s races for Governor and U.S. Senate remain where they’ve been for many months.

F&M pollster Terry Madonna noted to some extent, the survey is actually a little redundant.

“The polling differences have been somewhere between 13 and 18 points for both these races, in a political environment that certainly favors the Democrats — exactly the opposite of what we saw in this state in 2010,” he said.

Governor Tom Wolf currently leads challenger Scott Wagner by 17 points, and incumbent Senator Bob Casey is outstripping Congressman Lou Barletta by 13.

Madonna said that also speaks to another statistic the poll turned up — Democrats are more interested in the race than Republicans.

He said it all likely has a lot to do with national politics.

“The election right now, even though we’re talking about governor, the Senate, or congressional elections, is actually a referendum on President Trump,” Madonna said.

Barletta did get a slight boost in name recognition — one of his biggest challenges throughout the race.

A little more than half of surveyed voters now say they don’t know who he is, as opposed to about two-thirds early in the race.

Wolf’s own job performance has stayed fairly strong. It’s roughly equivalent to former two-term governor Ed Rendell, and higher than Wolf’s one-term predecessor Tom Corbett.