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Specter’s numbers continue to dip; still leads Sestak and Toomey

Senator Arlen Specter’s standing with voters is still falling ahead of next year’s reelection fight, with a historical low of only 23 percent of voters saying he deserves another term, according to a new poll.

The Franklin & Marshall College survey released Wednesday morning showed Specter’s approval rating at its lowest since Franklin & Marshall began asking the question in 1991, yet another piece of evidence that the longtime incumbent’s party switch has hurt him politically. But with a large proportion of voters undecided, Specter still holds leads—albeit increasingly narrow—over both his primary and general election opponents.

In the poll of 616 adults, including 529 registered voters, Specter leads Congressman Joe Sestak (D-7) in next year’s primary by 12 points, 30 percent to 18 percent, with 47 percent undecided. Sestak has continued to close what was once a massive gap.

Specter holds a statistically insignificant lead against Republican Pat Toomey, 33 percent to 31 percent. Thirty percent are still undecided in that matchup.

Sestak, meanwhile, trails Toomey by 8 points in a general election matchup, 28 percent to 20 percent. But almost half of voters are undecided in that race, giving more fuel to Sestak’s argument that he has more room to build a winning campaign against Toomey next November. Sixty-four percent of respondents don’t know enough about Toomey to form an opinion, and a whopping 77 percent don’t know enough about Sestak.

The poll had a margin of error of 3.9 percent.

Click here to see the full poll.

October 28, 2009 at 12:00 pm

--Dan Hirschhorn

Tags: Arlen Specter, Joe Sestak, Pat Toomey

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