PPP: Santorum leads by 18 in Pa
Barack Obama's numbers are up in the latest Public Policy Polling look at Pa, and Rick Santorum has a healthy lead in the GOP presidential race 6 weeks out from the state's primary. We're due to get more Pa numbers tomorrow from Quinnipiac. From PPP:
Pennsylvania voters are evenly divided on Obama's performance with 47% approving and an equal 47% disapproving of the job he's doing. That's a big improvement from Obama's numbers in the state over the course of 2011, which came in at 42/53, 46/48, 42/52, and 46/49 on our four polls of the state. Obama's numbers are up across the board when it compared to our November poll- with Democrats he's gone from 69/26 to 74/21, with Republicans he's gone from 9/85 to 15/78, and with independents he's gone from 45/53 to 52/41.
Obama's 7 point lead over Romney in Pennsylvania is a shift from last year when we twice found them tied, once found Romney ahead by a point, and once found Obama ahead by three. In addition to Obama's approval numbers improving, Romney's image has taken a hit in the state over the last 3 months. His favorability numbers were already bad at 32/51, but now they're worse at 30/60. Obama's turned a 2 point deficit against Romney with independents into a 51/38 lead.
The strongest of the Republican candidates in Pennsylvania- for both the primary and general- is Rick Santorum. He's the top choice of 43% of GOP primary voters to 25% for Romney, 13% for Newt Gingrich, and 9% for Ron Paul. Santorum's winning pretty much every segment of the electorate but he's particularly strong with Tea Party voters (49-21 over Gingrich with Romney at 17%), Evangelicals (53-16 over Romney), and voters identifying as 'very conservative' (66-15 over Romney.)