Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett is really unpopular:
Quinnipiac University released a poll on Wednesday that shows nothing but terrible news for Tom Corbett, Pennsylvania’s incumbent Republican Governor. He trails against every potential Democratic candidate. However, against the odds-on favorite, businessman Tom Wolf, Corbett trails by a nearly insurmountable margin of 19 points, 52-33. It looks like it is time for Corbett to call the moving van because he’ll be looking for a new home after the November election.
The poll shows that Pennsylvania voters are sick and tired of Corbett and just want him gone. 55% state that he does not deserve to be reelected, with only 34% saying he should be given a second term. Corbett only has a 36% approval rating. 52% of voters disapprove of the way he is doing his job. In fact, Pennsylvania voters disapprove of the way Corbett has handled pretty much every major issue.
Only 31% approve of the way the Governor has dealt with the state’s economy. Worse, only 29% feel he has done a good job handling health care. The same percentage of voters also approve of the way he has handled the state’s spending. A solid majority, 55%, feel that Corbett does not care about their needs or problems. Only 28% have a favorable view of the Governor, with 46% seeing him in a negative light.
Now, I live in Pennsylvania and I fully understand why most people here would rather have pube-lice than reelect Corbett. What I don’t understand is why Corbett is being punished for sins at an appropriate level but some other governors who are cut from the exact same cloth are still getting decent numbers. What has Corbett done that has not also been done by Kasich or Snyder or Walker? As far as I am concerned, a rational electorate would be giving them all Corbett reelect numbers.
Also, the poll shows that York County businessman Tom Wolf is now the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. I didn’t expect that and am not sure, yet, how I feel about it.
Three minutes trying to read Tom Wolf’s website and I’m ready to massacre a village of innocent civilians. Who the hell designed that atrocity?
with all the pictures and the narrative story.
I’m not in any of those states but I’ve read that the WI media protects Walker and FoxNews has a soft spot for Kasich. Maybe, it’s the media environment.
Kasich used to be the vacation replacement for BillO the Clown so of course they’ll protect him. And yes, the WI media has protected Walker up till now. That appears to be changing, at least. Also, I think Corbett suffers because the GOP controlled legislature and Corbett rarely appear on the same page. Have any of the other Teahadist Governors had to contend with that?
But it shouldn’t matter if Fox protects him – all we need is for the people who voted for Obama in these states to vote against this dick governors. It should be easy because there should be additional opposition to these guys from what I call the HRC-BHO demographic, i.e., people who are democrats in every other way except that they’re racist pigs.
So for the govs of MI, PA, OH, WI or FL to get more than 47% requires a complete disconnect that I just can’t understand.
Unless it’s that the pollsters are assuming that the turnout will be drastically different, which is unfortunately probably true. Maybe that’s it – still doesn’t address why PA is somehow less stupid than the rest of the blue rust belt or whatever it’s called.
scandal. That was when Corbett’s numbers went into the nosedive because he lost all of Eastern and Central PA. I suppose people cannot forgive the negligence and/or coverup actions of Corbett’s AG office that could have indicted and ended Sandusky earlier, and I suppose they think if that had happened, the beloved Paterno would still be with us and coaching.
Yes — give Walker or Kasich a Sandusky, a blocked bridge, a live boy or dead girl, and their poll numbers would be similar to Corbett’s.
Wolf had a nice ad that ran over the weekend, where he said he would (finally) tax the frackers and give the money to schools, while seated in an elementary classroom of kids who cheered him at the end. Gave me the warm fuzzies.
28% huh… isn’t the lower bound 27%?
I definitely think there is something to the media exposure angle. There is not a single significant media outlet carrying water for Corbett that I can tell. It appalls me to think about what the Wisconsin State Journal has been complicit in these last few years in my old hometown.
Corbett has let the vital rural one lane black top get destroyed by the frackers.
Why not Walker? I suspect Wisconsinites actually approved his screwing over of state workers and their union.
I find that hard to believe
I agree with VidaLoca directly below your comment.
It’s a little oversimplified but basically on the right track. Deindustrialization hit Wisconsin hard and the Democrats did little or nothing to stand up against it as private-sector jobs and union benefits left the state. The only union jobs left standing were in the public sector. The Republicans here mastered the message of demonizing those workers (especially teachers — this in the context that Wisconsin is the national ground-zero for the charter/voucher school movement) and a lot of people basically bought into it: “I don’t have a union/pension/sick leave/any other benefits at all — why should ‘those people’ have them”? What’s left is a crabs-in-a-bucket model of social organization that’s perfect for Republicans.
Of course it doesn’t help that the candidate the Democrats have picked to run against Walker is basically Michael Bloomberg in high heels.
No. It’s mostly the media environment. The WI media simply refuses to report on anything that Walker does that’s bad unless they’re forced to it. When they do report, they always spin it for Walker. Basically the entire state media system treats Walker the same way that Fox News treats Republicans in general.
For anyone interested in the state of Wisconsin public employee unions, 3 years on from the passage of Act 10 and Walker’s “Budget repair bill”, I recommend this: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/business/wisconsins-legacy-for-unions.html?ref=us.
Short story: it’s pretty bad. And most people here (outside of the public employees themselves who have taken a huge hit, and the political activists who are few in number) are pretty much OK with it. People in Milwaukee County are neither pleased nor fooled because we saw enough of Walker when he was County Executive but elsewhere, property taxes are going to go down (in an election year, imagine that!) so it’s all good.
The hidden costs of gutting the middle-income wage earners have yet to appear.
That’s quite a swing for Wolf in your link. Money can’t buy you love, but it can buy political office sure enough.
I was looking for his stands but didn’t find them. Owner & CEO of a vcabinet business doesn’t give me warm & fuzzies.
The moment Corbett blamed “sainted” Joe Paterno for what happened at Penn State during the Sandusky scandal, he was toast.
Although having been born and raised in PA, I still think the odds for Corbett’s reelection are 50/50. He’ll have unlimited funding from the fracking and health insurance industries (as well as the usual outside forces for evil) to air non-stop commercials that will claim that (add Dem nominee’s name here) is a LIBERAL! who wants to TAKE AWAY YER GUNZ! and FORCE YER KIDZ TA GAY MARRY! and RAISE YER TAXES!
“Bitterly clinging to their guns and religion” is PA’s unofficial state motto.
I think Midwest vs. East is part of the explanation. Illinois is an exception because of Chicagoland. Also, lots of effort by Republicans to take over the Midwest, destroy unions, etc. Look what has been happening in Missouri & Indiana over the years. However, I do not think all these Midwestern Republican governors will be reelected in Nov. 2014.
Yes. Illinois is Indiana with Chicago tacked on.