Pa. GOP poll finds Romney 1 point behind Obama; other surveys show president with big lead

    After seeing their state drained of its battleground status swagger, the Pennsylvania GOP says an internal poll justifies a late-campaign surge in TV ads on behalf of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

    The internal poll shows President Obama leading Romney by just one point.

    Rob Gleason, state Republican Party chairman, says he’s shared the poll results with “everyone [he] could,” and, though he says “they’ll have to make their own decisions,” he’s confident of one thing.

    “There will be TV commercials going up soon,” he said.

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    Susquehanna Polling and Research’s Ryan Lee, who conducted the survey, says it may be different than others showing a consistent lead for the president, but the results are borne out in other polling at the legislative level.

    “We don’t have the president leading above his 2008 numbers in any district we’ve surveyed in the past three months, and that’s been 37 House districts that we’ve surveyed in just three months’ time,” Lee said. “So I think I feel confident that the race is very close.”

    This month, Romney-allied superPACs pulled their money out of the commonwealth, judging it not sufficiently competitive for Romney.

    Other surveys this week, by the Philadelphia Inquirer and Morning Call–Muhlenberg College, show Romney behind by 11 and nine points, respectively.

    The GOP poll was conducted before video surfaced this week of Romney talked about the “47 percent” of Americans who don’t pay income taxes and are unlikely to vote for him.

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