New poll shows Corbett within striking distance of Wolf in race for governor

9/4/2014

Harper Polling on Thursday released the third statewide poll this week measuring support for the two candidates competing for the state’s top post. And just like the two surveys that came before — Wolf has a double-digit lead over Gov. Tom Corbett.

But this one shows a closer race.

Unlike the Robert Morris University survey that found Wolf leading the Republican by 30 points among likely Pennsylvania voters and the Franklin & Marshall College poll that showed the Democrat with a 25-point lead, Harper has the candidates separated by just 11 points.

The difference may be that Harper questioned likely voters with their candidate already selected. Only 7 percent of respondent said they were undecided.

Or the difference could be that the polling firm has ties to the GOP. Founder Brock McCleary once served as polling director and deputy executive director of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Harper conducted the interactive voice response polling of 665 likely voters. The poll took place on Tuesday and Wednesday. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.18 percent.

The poll, however, didn’t hold much good news for the Corbett campaign team.

It shows Wolf has stronger support among Democrats (82 percent) than Corbett does among Republicans (70 percent) — the Democrat takes 21 percent of the Republican vote away from the incumbent.

Harper reported that Wolf enjoys his largest lead in the southeast region of the state (58-35). The race is a draw in the southcentral (Corbett 48 and Wolf 45) and southwest (Corbett 46 and Wolf 48) regions.

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