We haven't been paying much attention to early polls for the 2010 races, but this one really caught my eye. Wow. I knew it was going to be rough for Arlen Specter in the Republican primary in PA (which is still a year away), but it's looking really, really bad. He's getting crushed by former Congressman Pat Toomey. Just crushed according to the latest Rasmussen Poll:
Incumbent Senator Arlen Specter trails former Congressman Pat Toomey by 21 points in an early look at Pennsylvania’s 2010 Republican Primary. Fifty-one percent (51%) of Republican voters statewide say they’d vote for Toomey while just 30% would support Specter.Republicans are really sick of Specter. He's in big trouble. This is a Republican primary re-match and Specter barely beat Toomey in 2004. Hard to see how Arlen recovers enough to keep his seat. Specter already tried veering right by flip-flopping on the Employee Free Choice Act. That strategy didn't help with the right wingers and caused him to lose support from labor. Arlen's got no friends. Maybe he should reconsider that offer to join the Democratic party after all.
Specter is viewed favorably by 42% of Pennsylvania Republicans and unfavorably by 55%, according to a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of voters in the state. Those are stunningly poor numbers for a long-term incumbent senator. Specter was first elected to the Senate in 1980.
Toomey, who served in the House from 1999 to 2005, earns positive reviews from 66% and negative comments from just 19%.
