Corbett numbers down in the dumps

To the list of states already regretting their new Republican Governor you can add Pennsylvania: Tom Corbett has only a 34% approval rating to 44% of voters disapproving of him and voters say that if they could do it all over again now they'd vote for Democrat Dan Onorato instead, by a 49-44 margin over Corbett.

Pennsylvania joins Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Florida, and Georgia as states where PPP has recently found that if voters had a second chance they would now vote against their new GOP chief executive. Part of that is a reminder of just how much of the Republican gains last year were driven by low Democratic turnout- the party's voters were fat and happy after big wins in 2006 and 2008 and just didn't have the sense of urgency they would have needed to keep that momentum going last year. But the other thing it's reflective of is that there has been somewhat of a shift in the political landscape over the last five months, particularly with independent voters.

Exit polls last year showed Corbett defeating Onorato by 18 points with independent voters. Now Corbett has only a 31% approval rating with them to 38% who disapprove and those folks say they'd vote for Onorato by a 45-41 margin in a redo. In addition to independents turning against all of these newly elected Republican Governors, we also found in polling earlier this week that they've turned against the new Republican Congress.

Independents are unhappy, impatient, and expecting immediate results from the folks they voted into office in November and because they don't feel like they're getting that they're quickly getting negative toward the new GOP officials. It seems safe to say that if last year had been a Democratic year they'd probably already be turning against the Democrats too but for Republicans this is proving to be part of the price of success.

In addition to the upside down numbers for Corbett with independents he's suffering because only 60% of Republicans approve of the job he's doing. There are actually more GOP voters- 22%- who disapprove of his work so far than there are Democrats- 16%- who think he's doing a good job.

Voters in the state are pretty ambivalent toward Pat Toomey, which given Corbett and Barack Obama's unpopularity isn't necessarily a bad place to be. Toomey has a 32% approval rating with 31% of voters disapproving and 37% expressing no opinion. He's on narrowly positive ground with independents at 29/25, and benefits because Republicans (51%) are stronger in their approval of him than Democrats (44%) are in their disapproval.

Full results here