Sen. Arlen Specter’s new poll numbers, according to Roll Call, look better as a Democrat. His “deserves to be re-elected” number in Quinnipiac’s new poll jumped with the party switch from 38 to 49 percent.
Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), a newly-minted Democrat, is in a virtual tie with former Gov. Tom Ridge (R) in a hypothetical test of the Keystone State’s 2010 Senate contest. In a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday, Specter led Ridge 46 percent to 43 percent among voters surveyed…The Quinnipiac poll showed Specter’s re-election chances greatly improved running against [Pat] Toomey [R] as a Democrat — Specter led the former Congressman 53 percent to 33 percent with 10 percent undecided.
Toomey is completely unknown by 67 percent of respondents, meaning that he starts behind but there is a lot of upside for him still.
Interestingly, Specter got 52 percent in the 2004 general election. This time he’s at almost the same place he was then, but probably with a totally different 53 percent of the voters than he got in 2004.
A question, though: Specter made much of how his seniority benefits Pennsylvania and that is why he is staying in the Senate. If Specter loses his seniority in their secret-ballot vote because of other senior Democrats’ objections, which party would he join next?