Public Policy Polling was there for Pennsylvania's special election Tuesday with a telephone exit poll of voters. What they found was that the energy from the public that helped defeat Republicans' efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act is still there. Health care was the top priority for those voters in Pennsylvania, and they believed Lamb's views are "more in step with theirs."
Healthcare was among the top issues for 52 percent of the voters, with 15 percent saying it was most important and 37 percent saying it was very important. And among those voters saying it was the most important issue, Lamb beat Saccone 64-36. His margin among those who said it was either most important or very important, Lamb won 62-38. On the issue, Lamb "better reflected their views by 7 points" 45-38 percent.
Here's where it gets even more interesting.
Voters were less likely to support Saccone because of the Republican health care agenda. Saccone's support of the Republican health care agenda made 41% of voters less likely to vote for him and only 28% more likely to support him.
Voters in this heavily Republican district disapproved of the Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act by 14 points (53% to 39%).
- 48% of voters believed Republicans are now trying to undermine and sabotage it since they failed to repeal it. Among independent voters, the disparity is even wider with only 33% supporting the GOP's health care repeal efforts to 63% opposing them.
- In this deeply red district, 44% of voters support the Affordable Care Act while 42% oppose it.
- -Only 38% of voters think the best path forward on health care is to repeal the Affordable Care Act, to 59% who think it should be kept in place with fixes made to it as necessary.
Meanwhile, House Freedom maniacs are still making noise about sabotaging the law as soon as completely as they can. The long list of maniacal far-right groups including Heritage Action, Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity are doing the same, pressuring Republicans to "repeal and replace Obamacare and to reject taxpayer bailouts for Obamacare and private health insurance companies, particularly in upcoming government spending bills."
So, well, you go with that guys. See how that works out for you in November. Because that was just tested in Pennsylvania, in one of the reddest congressional districts you used to hold. And because this: