Eye on the Senate: Specter Leads Sestak By 13

By CQ-Roll Call Staff | August 12, 2009 5:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Rasmussen Reports poll taken Tuesday gives Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter a 13-point lead over his chief intraparty rival, Rep. Joe Sestak.

Specter won support from 47 percent of respondents who said that they are likely to vote in the Democratic Senate primary next May. Sestak was backed by 34 percent, while 16 percent said they weren't sure about a Senate choice. "Some other candidate" was supported by 3 percent.

Democratic voters give good marks to both men -- 71 percent of respondents said they have a very favorable or somewhat favorable impression of Specter, compared with 54 percent who said the same about Sestak.

Nearly one in four of those surveyed said they could not rate Sestak favorably or unfavorably. Sestak is only in his second term representing some suburbs of Philadelphia, while Specter has represented Pennsylvania in the Senate since 1981.

The leading Republican candidate is former Rep. Pat Toomey.

The telephone poll of 423 likely Democratic primary voters has a margin of error of 5 percentage points.

CQ Politics rates the Pennsylvania Senate race as Leans Democratic, an indication that the general election race will be highly competitive.

To see how the 2010 Senate races are shaping up, check out the CQ Politics election map.

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