Onorato closing in on Corbett in Governor’s race

    The Democrat still trails Corbett in the race for Pennsylvania Governor.

    A new poll shows the race for Pennsylvania Governor is shaping up to be a closer contest. A survey released Wednesday shows the Democrat within the margin of error of the Republican candidate.

    The new Franklin and Marshall College poll shows Republican Tom Corbett leading Democrat Dan Onorato by four points among those most likely to vote.

    Pollster Terry Madonna says the gap has tightened since August when Corbett had a ten point lead.

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    “For the last several weeks Dan Onorato has been on television, he initiated his statewide TV ad, an ad introducing him, re-introducing himself since the Democratic primary, to the voters of the state. And that’s helped Dan Onorato increase his name recognition by ten percentage points. He’s campaigned much more vigorously I think than Tom Corbett who’s using a front-runner strategy: limiting his appearances, limiting his media exposure.”

    With just over a month until the election, the poll shows nearly one in three voters is still undecided.

    The poll shows Governor Rendell’s job approval rating down twenty percentage points since September 2006.

    Voters in the poll give President Obama a thirty-seven percent job approval – a figure that mirrors voters’ approval of President Bush’s work in August 2006.

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