On eve of Pa. primary clear favorites remain
On the eve of Pennsylvania’s primary election day, both gubernatorial races had clear leaders.
A poll released on Monday shows Dan Onorato ahead in the four-way race for the Democratic gubernatorial nod while Tom Corbett appears poised to cruise to the Republican nom.
A Quinnipiac University survey made public Monday put Onorato and Corbett well ahead of their competitors.
Onorato, Allegheny County's elected chief executive, claimed 39 percent in the battle for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams had 11 percent, state Auditor General Jack Wagner, 10 percent, Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel, 9 percent.
But 31 percent remained undecided. And at least half of the voters who named a favorite said they might change their minds.
“If all the undecided voters went to one of the other candidates, Onorato could conceivably lose. But the odds of that kind of scenario are very, very, very long,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the university's polling institute.
Politics
The statewide telephone survey of 951 Democrats was conducted between Wednesday and Sunday. The sampling error margin is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
Corbett enjoyed an even larger lead as he topped state Rep. Sam Rohrer 57 percent to 14 percent in the poll.
Both apparent front-runners -- Onorato and Corbett -- were both flying across the state from east to west Monday, with landings for campaign stops along the way.
At a rally on City Island in Harrisburg, front-running Corbett urged supporters to focus on winning Tuesday's primary against Rohrer before thinking about the general-election campaign. Rohrer was stumping in the Philadelphia suburbs.
Hoeffel was concentrating his efforts in the Philadelphia area, Williams was in Philadelphia and in Allentown, and Jack Wagner was making the rounds in his home city of Pittsburgh.
Polls across the state open at 7 a.m. Tuesday.
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