Good news for Corbett in new poll, RGA cash

Gov. Tom Corbett just got two pieces of news that might reassure Republicans worried that his reelection campaign was in deep trouble.

First, Harper Polling released a survey Thursday that showed Corbett trailing Democrat Tom Wolf by 11 percentage points, a much tighter race than two other recent polls found.

Second, the Republican Governors Association announced it gave $3.5 million to his campaign coffers – a possible indication that the national GOP has not written off Corbett. RGA had already given Corbett $1.8 million.

The survey of likely voters by Harper, a Republican polling firm, found Wolf with 52 percent support, to 41 percent for Corbett. Seven percent were undecided.

Harper also found that 61 percent of respondents believed Wolf will win on Nov. 4 regardless of how they planned to vote. The robo-poll of 665 likely voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Robert Morris University released its own automated telephone poll on Wednesday, showing Wolf with a lead of 30 percentage points among self-identified likely voters, 55.5 percent to 24.7 percent, with 20.8 percent undecided. Results are subject to a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points the pollster says.

Franklin & Marshall College's latest survey, released last week, put Wolf's lead at 25 percentage points – 49 percent to 24 percent, with a quarter undecided. Results were based on live interviews with 520 registered voters and are subject to an error margin of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.

Corbett's campaign had criticized Franklin & Marshall and RMU's methodologies, saying they had sampled a higher percentage of Democratic voters than is likely to turn out Nov. 4.

But campaign manager Mike Barley trumpeted the Harper poll's relatively good news in an email to supporters, saying Corbett "is closing the gap!" and asking for contributions.