Pa. voters liked Corbett’s handling of storm emergencies

A new poll suggests Pennsylvania voters have a higher opinion of Gov. Tom Corbett’s job performance in the wake of superstorm Sandy.

About 40 percent of respondents in a Quinnipiac University poll say Corbett’s doing all right on the job while 38 percent don’t care for the job he’s doing.

Overall, 23 percent of polled voters had no opinion at all. Quinnipiac’s Tim Malloy says it’s the most noncommittal voters have appeared to be in a while.

“Don’t know, or no opinion was higher than normal. Maybe people were sorting it out, I mean, it’s an election period,” Malloy said. “Maybe people were just burned out having an opinion on a politician generally.”

Of course, many did have an opinion of the governor’s performance, and a favorable one at that.

Pollsters are crediting them for Corbett’s “Sandy bump.”

Though his approval rating was 40 percent, his score jumped to 61 percent when voters were asked specifically how they liked Corbett’s handling of the super storm.

“You know, a million people in Pennsylvania without power, he was heading up a command post, he looked good doing it,” Malloy said. “So we would call this a Sandy bump.”