pennsylvania

(Via Technorati.)

Philly.com is reporting that a bevy of city and state elected officials - specifically, 6 Philadelphia City Council members, 3 state representatives, and state senators Shirley Kitchen and Vincent Hughes - are expected to endorse Barack Obama for president at the Philadelphia City Hall today. The state’s governor and the mayor of Philly are both Clinton supporters, so the Democratic party in PA is clearly not of one mind on the presidential race. Obama supporters seem to anticipate that the contest will go past the April 22 Pennsylvania primary: Cinco de Mayo fund-raisers are already in place on the Obama campaign site.

Technorati Tags: obama, pennsylvania, campaign 2008, endorsements

(Via Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire.)

A new InsiderAdvantage poll in Pennsylvania shows Sen. Hillary Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama, 48% to 38%.

Said pollster Matt Towery: “Sen. Clinton has made progress among both men and among all white voters. Her support among women also appears to be consolidating. My guess is that whatever damage she might have sustained by recent gaffs and media missteps have been largely discounted by the public. The race in Pennsylvania is clearly still fluid. But, at least for now, it’s tending back towards the result that was originally anticipated by most - a Clinton lead.”

Complete survey results are available.

(Via Newsvine - democrats.)

For most today, the likely Pennsylvania win is single digit, and it may be in Obama’s favor. Certainly, as in every other recent primary, the anticipation is that Clinton will not do well because of Obama’s money and draw with younger voters.

(Via The Huffington Post | Full News Feed.)

If you were operating off of the tone of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign it’s a downright political miracle that the she isn’t trailing Barack Obama by 20 points in the current Pennsylvania polls.

In a Wednesday conference call with reporters, aides to the New York Democrat offered a heaping dose of expectations-setting roughly two weeks before Pennsylvanians hit the polls.

“The fact that we still maintain a lead after Sen. Obama spent six days here and got the backing of [Pennsylvania] Sen. [Bob] Casey, and in light of being outspent, I think it is remarkable that we still maintain a lead,” said T.J. Rooney, the state’s Democratic Party chairman. “We don’t think we have any weaknesses in this state. It has been said before and it bears repeating: we are being outspent financially.”

And indeed, Obama is pouring massive resources into the state. Estimates have him outspending Clinton by a margin of three-to-one in Pennsylvania, and his campaign has been flooding the airwaves with advertisements. With these advantages, Clinton’s aides say, its remarkable that Clinton is even hanging on.

“If Senator Obama is not able to win Pennsylvania with all the resources he has thrown at the state… it will again demonstrate that he has serious problems winning the large states and closing the deal with voters,” said Clinton’s spokesman Howard Wolfson. “We all now that the road to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue runs through Pennsylvania. If Sen. Obama, outspending us three to one in the state, is unable to win Pennsylvania it would be another sign that his campaign is not the best to face Sen. McCain in the fall.”

The reality, of course, is much more nuanced. For weeks Clinton supporters have been predicting her victory in the state, some by double-digit margins. As recently as yesterday, a poll had the Senator besting Obama by 16 points, although that could be an outlier; the distance between the two candidates has narrowed sharply. And Pennsylvania’s political landscape - with more blue collar white voters - and its primary structure - which is limited to only Democrats - lend itself more favorably to Clinton’s candidacy.

That said, Obama has devoted myriad resources to besting Clinton in the Keystone State, in what would perhaps be a knockout win. As Wolfson told the reporters, referencing to the 37-point score Obama recently rolled at a bowling alley: “He has been willing even to put his bowling skills on display in an effort to do well here.”

(Via CNN.com.)

Sen. Barack Obama continues to chip away at Sen. Hillary Clinton’s lead in the crucial state of Pennsylvania, a new Quinnipiac poll out Tuesday showed.

The New York senator’s lead over Obama now stands at 6 points in the new poll, 50-44 percent.

That compares to the 9-point lead Clinton held in a similar survey released five days ago, and an 11-point lead in a Quinnipiac survey late last month.

Specifically, Clinton has lost ground among white voters and men: She now holds an 18-point lead among whites, down from a 25-point gap in last week’s poll, and trails Obama by 4 points among males.

Last week, the two drew equal support from men.

But Clinton continues to remain strong with her core voting bloc of older voters and white women, and likely Pennsylvania Democratic voters rate her more favorably than Obama — 71 percent for Clinton and 67 percent for Obama.

(Via .)

A new Franklin & Marshall poll in Pennsylvania shows Sen. Hillary Clinton way ahead of Sen. Barack Obama, 51% to 35%

Key finding: The poll shows the percentage of Democratic voters who view Obama favorably plunged by 10 points since last month’s poll. His unfavorable rating jumped from 16% to 25%.

(Via Newsvine - Democrats.)

Pennsylvanians are rushing in record numbers to sign up as Democrats so they can vote in the April 22 presidential primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

(Via Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire.)

A new American Research Group poll in Pennsylvania shows Sen. Hillary Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama, 52% to 41%.

Key findings: Obama leads among men 59% to 38% and Clinton leads among women 63% to 27%. Clinton leads among white voters 63% to 29% and Obama leads among African American voters 89% to 7%. African Americans account for 18% of likely Democratic primary voters. Clinton leads 47% to 45% among likely primary voters under 50 and she leads 58% to 37% among likely primary voters 50 and older.

(Via Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire.)

A new Rasmussen Reports survey in Pennsylvania finds Sen. Hillary Clinton has opened a 15 point lead over Sen. Barack Obama, 52% to 37%. Less than two weeks ago, Clinton’s lead was just 4 points.

Key finding: “The big difference between that poll and the current result is found among men. Clinton now leads by seventeen percentage points among women and eleven among men. In the previous survey, she was ahead by fifteen points among women but trails by fourteen among men.”