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Dent sees hope in national trend

Congressman Charlie Dent’s (R-15) campaign is pointing to a national poll of competitive House districts as evidence that the incumbent is well-positioned to win reeelection this year.

The Dent campaign on Wednesday highlighted a poll commissioned by NPR, which found, among other things, Republican incumbents in battleground districts to be less vulnerable than Democratic incumbents in similar districts. The poll, conducted by Democratic firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies, found Dent’s 15th Congressional District to be the 10th most competitive GOP-held seat in the country. It is currently No. 5 on the pa2010.com Congressional Power Rankings.

The survey of 60 districts found that, on average, 49 percent of voters in Republican districts would reelect their congressman, whereas only 34 percent of those in Democratic districts would choose to do the same. When given the choice between the two candidates, voters in GOP-held areas, like the 15th, favor the Republican by a 53- to 37-percent margin. Pennsylvania’s 3rd, 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th and 12th districts were also included in the poll of 1,200 likely voters. Results for specific districts weren’t released, and pollsters involved told pa2010.com that the sample size averaged only about 15 voters per district, and wasn’t intended to offer snapshots on individual races.

Still, Dent’s campaign took notice of the larger trend.

“This verifies that local voters still view Charlie Dent as the best candidate to represent them on the important issues of the day in Congress,” Dent campaign manager Shawn Millan said in a statement.

Click here to see the poll.

June 17, 2010 at 10:16 am

--Donald Hoegg

Tags: Charlie Dent, John Callahan, PA-15

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