To: News Media and All Interested Parties

From : Ryan Shafik, Rockwood Strategies

Date: January 8, 2013

Re: Polling on Gov. Corbett

__________________________________________________________________

The recently released survey by Public Policy Polling (PPP) reveals a grim reality for Republican

Governor Tom Corbett, as follows:

Currently, Gov. Tom Corbett is one of the most unpopular Republican Governors in America.

Today, Gov. Corbett has much worse numbers than former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum did at this point

in 2005. Consider: In Feb. 2005, Santorum had an Approval/Disapproval rating of 52% - 31%. In

contrast, Governor Corbett’s Approval/Disapproval rating is at 38% – 52%. Santorum’s approval

was + 19 points, while Corbett is underwater at minus (–) 14 points.

More alarming is Corbett’s Approval/Disapproval rating among women which stands at 30% –

57% ( - ) minus 27 points. Not even Romney or Santorum had this large of a gender gap problem.

Also, Santorum’s re-elect number was hovering around 50% at this time, while Gov. Corbett’s is

stuck at 41%.

Corbett barely breaks the 40% support threshold against little-known Democrat candidate John

Hanger and is stuck in the low 40s against all potential Democrat challengers.

Also, Corbett has an unusually high disapproval number amongst Republican voters, who are also

losing faith in him. It is very rare for Republican disapproval to cracks 10% for a sitting

Republican Governor. Corbett has a 30% disapproval rating amongst Republicans—three times

the norm—and it continues to trend in the wrong direction.

Worse still: Corbett’s recent NCAA lawsuit gambit is viewed by the public as a raw political stunt

to alleviate the fact that, by a 2-to1 margin, the public believes he mishandled the Penn State

scandal.

Finally: incoming Attorney General Kane takes office soon and will conduct an investigation of the

Sandusky scandal; while it’s uncertain how her investigation will unfold, it’s reasonably

foreseeable that Corbett’s numbers will sink even lower and have not much prospect for going up.

*Sources: (2005 and 2012 Quinnipiac and 2013 PPP Polls)

Contact: ryan@rockwoodstrategies.com