The end is nigh for Tom Corbett
He's dead, Jim. PPP's
new Pennsylvania poll, taken in the wake of businessman Tom Wolf's resounding win in the Democratic primary, shows Wolf pulverizing GOP Gov. Tom Corbett by an extraordinary 55-30 margin. That's a sizable increase on the already-serious 44-32 lead Wolf had back in November, the last time PPP tested the general election.
And while the primary did turn somewhat negative toward the end, Wolf has emerged looking good, with a strong 47-20 favorability score. Even Republicans don't particularly dislike him, giving him a 29-32 rating, and 24 percent say they'll vote for him. Corbett, meanwhile, sports incredibly dreadful job approvals of just 27 percent positive to a whopping 58 negative. (His cuts to education funding and his mishandling of the Penn State sexual abuse scandal are key reasons for his deep unpopularity.) What incumbent could possibly win with numbers like that?
So the real question at this point is whether the Republican Governors Association's own polling looks anything like PPP's—in other words, whether Corbett gets triaged now, or if Republicans hold out any hope of resuscitating him. But unless PPP is way, way off, it's hard to see how this corpsicle can be revived.
And if Corbett does get left for dead, the real worries for the GOP then move downballot. Democrats are hopeful they can take back the legislature, particularly the state Senate, where Republicans hold a relatively slim 27-23 edge. It's certainly no easy task, particularly in a midterm year, but with Corbett looking like serious deadweight at the top of the ticket, it's definitely within reach, and 2014 could be a very good year for Pennsylvania Democrats.