HARRISBURG, Pa. (July 13) - Sixteen months before they potentially could square off in Pennsylvania's next U.S. Senate election, Republican incumbent Rick Santorum still trails Democratic hopeful Robert P. Casey Jr., according to a new poll.
The Quinnipiac University poll of 1,639 Pennsylvania voters showed Casey, the state treasurer, leading the second-term senator 50 percent to 39 percent - reflecting a tightening from Casey's 49-35 percent lead in an April survey by the same pollster.
Santorum's job-approval rating rebounded during that period from 48 percent to 51 percent. Forty-five percent of the respondents said he deserves another term and 38 percent said he does not.
Casey and Santorum are viewed favorably by nearly identical percentages of the electorate - nearly 40 percent - but 36 percent said they do not yet know enough about Casey, the poll found.
Twenty-seven percent said they hold an unfavorable opinion of Santorum, a conservative who is the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, compared to 9 percent for Casey, a son of the late governor.
"Pennsylvania voters apparently don't feel Santorum's politics are out of line with their own views, but he will have his hands full running against a Democrat with the name of Casey," said Clay Richards, assistant director of the Connecticut-based university's polling institute.
IÂ’ll admit that I don't know much about Pennsylvanian politics since I'm a left-coastie Californian. But I do know that we have our own California Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger who is also slumping in the state wide public opinion polls. Santorum has been pushing a hard-lined conservative agenda, which includes Bush's Social Security privatization plan, war in Iraq, and some social views that a Religious Right evangelist could only love. Schwarzenegger has been pushing his "reform" package of special election ballot initiatives requiring 5probationations on teachers before tenure, permission slips from members before unions can give to political candidates, and retired judges to draw up redistricting plans. Of course this is going to cost the state of California $50-80 million in taxpayer dollars, that the state doesn't have, to put on a special election, that Californians have said they didn't want in public opinion polls, for a reform package that the California Republican Party just loves.
The problem with the Republican Party--both statewide and national--is that they are trying to govern too far to the right. When you have a single party controlling both Congress and the White House, the controlling party starts to believe in their own hubris and start shoving their agenda down the opposition's throats. Look at how the Religious Right has taken over the Republican party's platform and has been practically demanding that President Bush select a conservative ideologue to the Supreme Court--someone who could overturn Roe verses Wade, which has been the Religious Right's ecstatic dream, even though national public opinion polls have shown a basic American support for abortion. Bush's own public opinion polls have dropped, his Social Security privatization plan is practically a non-issue, and he's lost public support for the war in Iraq. Santorum, Schwarzenegger, and Bush all show an important lesson in governance. You cannot push to govern too far to either the right or left of the political spectrum, otherwise, the opposition party and moderates and independents will force you out of power or push you back towards governing in the center. You have to govern from the center. You have to govern from the middle. If you don't, then your majority party will soon become a minority party in the government.
Probably one of the best governmental structures this country can have is one where one party controls Congress, and the other party controls the Presidency. When this takes place, both parties will realize that they have to work with each other in order to get legislation through, to get the country's business taken care of. Hence, both parties have to compromise. We haven't had that type of structure for the last three years, since the Republicans have taken control of Congress. As a result, we have seen problems starting to become more serious, scandals and corruption starting to surface. The Republicans have had too much hubris within them since they've become drunk with power. It is only a matter of time before the party is over, and the Republicans are kicked out onto the street.
Let's hope 2006 is the beginning of the end of the Republican's "party."
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