Altmire Leads Critz by 24 in Own Poll

By Steven Shepard  //  March 16, 2012 | 12:19 p.m.

A poll conducted for Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Jason Altmire's campaign in his member-vs.-member primary race against fellow Democrat Mark Critz shows Altmire increasing his lead over the past two months, after the Critz campaign unsuccessfully tried to boot Altmire from the April 24 ballot.

Altmire leads Critz by 24 points, 55 percent to 31 percent, according to the poll, conducted earlier this week by the Democratic polling firm Anzalone Liszt Research. In a previously-released, mid-January Altmire internal poll, Altmire led Critz by a slightly smaller, 16-point margin, 50 percent to 34 percent.

The most recent Critz internal, conducted in early February by Global Strategy Group, showed Altmire leading by ten percentage points.

Altmire's new poll could help him turn the page after a difficult stretch in the campaign. Critz had challenged Altmire's petition signatures, claiming that signatures gathered by an Altmire staffer were invalid because the staffer lives in a different congressional district. A judge ruled earlier this month that Altmire should remain on the ballot, but the episode generated negative headlines and raised questions about Altmire's organization.

The two Democrats were drawn into the same western Pennsylvania district by the Republican-controlled state legislature, which was forced to eliminate one of the state's congressional districts following the 2010 reapportionment. The Altmire internal poll models a Democratic primary electorate next month in which Altmire currently represents 64 percent of likely voters, and Altmire wins among those voters by 61 points. The poll was conducted March 12-14, surveying 400 likely Democratic primary voters. The margin of error is plus-or-minus 4.9 percentage points.

Read & Post Comments
Leave A Comment
The National Journal Group has the right (but not the obligation) to monitor the comments and to remove any materials it deems inappropriate.
Comments powered by Disqus
Follow National Journal
About

Staff


Reid Wilson, Editor-in-Chief
Steve Shepard, Executive Editor
Julie Sobel, Editor
Kevin Brennan, Deputy Editor


Disclaimer


On Call editors reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments. The Hotline, National Journal Group, Inc. and Atlantic Media Company are not responsible for the content of the comments that remain.