Pennsylvania voters are down on President Barack Obama, but they remain really unhappy with Gov. Tom Corbett, a dissatisfaction fueled heavily by the governor's cuts to education and the ongoing economic slump, according to a new Franklin & Marshall College poll released Wednesday.
With the election less than 10 months away and despite some modest improvement in his standing, voters by wide margins still view Corbett unfavorably, don't think much of the way he's doing his job and don't think he deserves re-election, according to the poll.
Almost one in five (19 percent) of voters less than pleased with the way the governor is doing his job say it is because of cuts to education, according to the poll. More than one in eight (13 percent) named economic issues as the reasons for their displeasure.
G. Terry Madonna, the poll's director, could not think of another state where education is playing such a major role in a governor's standing with voters.
"He's still in a perilous re-election situation," Madonna said. "The basic problem has to do with the cuts. The problem is that the narrative has been (teacher) layoffs, staff cutbacks, cutting the music and art programs, what's happening to sports programs. That's the narrative coming out of one school district after another all over the state. ... Education is huge and likely to dominate (the election). That's why every single Democratic candidate (for governor) is for increasing education funding."
The poll of 580 registered voters was conducted between Jan. 22 and Monday, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
The poll showed fewer than a quarter of voters (24 percent) had a strongly or somewhat favorable view of the governor with almost half (48 percent) viewing him somewhat or strongly unfavorably. The favorability rating is about the same as F&M's poll in October (23 percent), though the unfavorability rating is down slightly from then (52 percent).
Obama's favorability rating (42 percent favorable, 48 percent unfavorable) is far better than the governor's, but down sharply from October (50 percent favorable, 44 percent unfavorable). His job approval rating is way down, too, with three in 10 (30 percent) saying he has done an excellent or good job compared to almost four in 10 (39 percent) in October.
Corbett actually got a slight bump in job approval with almost a quarter (23 percent) saying he is doing a good or excellent job (up from 19 percent) and almost three quarters (72 percent) saying he's done a fair or poor job down from October (76 percent).
But that and his favorability rating continue to undermine Corbett's re-election chances, though that barometer is slightly better than October, too. Almost one in four (23 percent) said he deserves re-election up from one in five (20 percent). In October, two-thirds (67 percent) said it is time for a change. That number dropped slightly to more than three in five (63 percent) in the latest poll.
Worse yet for Corbett: his support among the people who think he deserves re-election isn't entirely solid. Four in 10 (40 percent) answered no when asked if they would vote for Corbett no matter who ran against him.
Corbett is not helped by voters' evaluation of the way things are going in the state. A quarter of voters (25 percent) believe the state is headed in the right direction, but more than three in five (62 percent) still think things are off on the wrong track, virtually unchanged since October.
The economic issues and education dominated when voters were asked the most important problem facing the state.
Almost a third (31 percent) named the economy, unemployment or personal finances, almost one in five (19 percent) named education and schools. More than one in 10 (11 percent) named government/politicians or taxes.
Eight Democrats have announced plans to seek the Democratic nomination for governor. The poll did not ask how well Corbett fares head to head against each candidate, but previous polls by other organizations have shown every Democrat ahead of him for now.