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Corbett still leads Dems, as Onorato gains ground

Attorney General Tom Corbett still holds a comfortable edge over his potential Democratic rivals for governor, and Democrat Dan Onorato appears to be slowly but surely pulling ahead of his primary opponents, according to a new poll.

The Rasmussen survey released Tuesday showed Corbett, the presumptive GOP nominee, topping Onorato by nine points, 45 percent to 36 percent. Onorato fares the better against Corbett than the other two rivals that Rasmussen polled, a distinction that has more often been enjoyed by Auditor General Jack Wagner over the past several months.

In the poll, Corbett leads Wagner by 21 points, 48 percent to 27 percent. And Corbett holds a 20-point edge over Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel, 49 percent to 29 percent. State Senator Anthony Williams (D-Philadelphia), the only candidate besides Onorato who is airing TV ads, was not included in the poll.

Rasmussen’s was the third recent poll that seemed to show Onorato enjoying increased name recognition from a statewide adverting blitz that began a few weeks ago. A Susquehanna Polling & Research survey last week showed the Allegheny County Executive surging to 32 percent of the primary vote, and a Quinnipiac University poll two weeks ago showed Onorato’s name recognition on the rise. Rasmussen showed Corbett topping Onorato by a two-to-one margin in February. In the latest survey, fewer Democrats are unsure about their impression of Onorato than say the same thing about his rivals, albeit by a small margin.

The poll of 500 likely voters, conducted April 15, had a margin of error of 4.5 percent.

April 20, 2010 at 11:31 am

--Dan Hirschhorn

Tags: Anthony Williams, Dan Onorato, Jack Wagner, Joe Hoeffel, Sam Rohrer, Tom Corbett

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