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U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter is slipping in the new Keystone Poll, but his Democratic challenger, U.S. Rep. Joe Hoeffel, remains unknown to half the state, poll director G. Terry Madonna says.
"I always thought this was going to be a competitive race, and if Hoeffel can raise the money to get known, it will be a competitive race," said Madonna, director of the Franklin & Marshall College Center for Public Opinion Research in Lancaster.
Among likely voters, Specter, the four-term Republican senator, had 44 percent of the vote. Hoeffel, a Democratic congressman from suburban Philadelphia, had 35 percent. Constitution Party nominee Jim Clymer, a Lancaster County attorney, was at 7 percent. Libertarian nominee Betsy Summers of Wilkes-Barre was not included in the poll.
Hoeffel's not there yet, but getting closer. That 7% for Clymer will probably hold or even grow. Big anti-choice segment of the population who will not vote for Specter.