Losing the signal: Corbett’s campaign commercials not helping

DEMOCRAT Tom Wolf maintains a commanding lead over Gov. Corbett despite months of televised campaign commercials that cost millions to air.

A Daily News/Franklin & Marshall College Poll released today shows Wolf with an 18-point lead on Corbett, 49 percent to 31 percent, among registered voters.

That lead grows slightly to 20 points for Wolf, 54 percent to 34 percent, among voters who said they are likely to cast a ballot in the Nov. 4 general election.

Even the messages the voters are accepting from the commercials seem to be breaking Wolf's way.

Eighty-one percent of those polled said they believe that Wolf, who runs a York County company that distributes kitchen cabinets, is a successful businessman.

Compare that with Corbett: 66 percent believe he has raised state taxes and fees while 63 percent say he has opposed an extraction tax on natural-gas drillers.

The commercials are being seen by voters. They're just not having much of an impact on a race that Wolf has led for months.

Eighty-four percent said they have seen them but just one in 10 said a commercial swayed them in favor of either candidate.

"I don't remember a time when so much money was spent and made so little a difference," pollster G. Terry Madonna said.

Education and the economy continue to be the leading concerns for voters, extending a trend that stretches back to the early days of Corbett's administration in Harrisburg.

Sixty-two percent of those polled said Corbett does not deserve a second term, while 30 percent say he does and 9 percent were unsure.

Putting the race into historical context, Madonna noted that just 28 percent of voters think Corbett has done an excellent or good job as governor. His predecessors, Ed Rendell and Tom Ridge, were both over 50 percent in that rating when they ran for second terms, Madonna said.

"He's further behind than any governor running for re-election in modern history," Madonna said of Corbett.

The poll, which splits the state into seven regions, found Wolf beating Corbett in every area. Wolf holds a 18-point lead in Allegheny County, Corbett's home turf.

Madonna expected Wolf to hold a large lead in Philadelphia, where he is up 71 percent to 12 percent. But he also holds comfortable leads in the suburbs around the city and up into the Lehigh Valley.

"The key to me is always the Philadelphia suburbs," Madonna said. "Republicans must win the Philly burbs and the Lehigh Valley. You can't make it up anywhere else in the state."

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