Quinnipiac poll: Wolf’s lead over Corbett ‘prohibitive’ in Pa. race

A Quinnipiac University poll of Pennsylvania likely voters finds Gov. Tom Corbett is 24 points behind his Democratic challenger, Tom Wolf.

Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they would vote for the York County businessman, with 35 percent supporting Corbett. The figures include people leaning toward voting for either candidate.

Fifteen percent of respondents said they could change their minds.

The findings are a “trifecta of bad news for Corbett,” said Tim Malloy, assistant poll director

“Wolf is crushing him,” Malloy said of Corbett. “Add to that the fact that he loses on all the major character traits – trustworthiness, how he handles education, how he handles jobs, and then lastly, 59 percent of people in Pennsylvania say their vote is really more to get rid of Corbett than it is to vote in Wolf.”

Corbett has support among 66 percent of Republicans surveyed. Malloy said Wolf’s lead among Democratic (91 to 7 percent) and independent respondents (53 to 39 percent) is overwhelming.

“Anything can happen but, at this point, it’s almost a prohibitive lead,” said Malloy.

The survey of 1,161 registered voters who said they would cast ballots Nov. 4 has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. Answers were taken from Sept. 3-8.

Quinnipiac’s poll was conducted by interviewers who call landlines and cell phones. That’s probably worth mentioning now, since so many surveys have been released on the gubernatorial election, all using different methodologies, showing the spread between Corbett and Wolf as large as 30 points, and as small as 9 points.

The Quinnipiac numbers echo findings of a Franklin & Marshall College poll of likely voters released last month showing the governor trailing Wolf by 25 points. The Corbett campaign criticized that survey, saying it overestimated Democratic voter turnout.

“While many recent polls have shown numbers all across the spectrum,” said a Corbett campaign spokesman Billy Pitman, “we are confident that the only poll that matters on Election Day will result in Gov. Corbett’s re-election to a second term.”

This is a corrected version.  Due to an editing mistake, a previous version reported the incorrect percentage supporting Tom Wolf.