ZOGBY POLL: Chuck beats Santorum and Casey

Just got this from Chuck Pennacchio's campaign:

At long last, someone asked the question we've all been waiting for. When Pennsylvanians are given a choice between Rick Santorum and Chuck Pennacchio, Chuck wins. And he wins bigger than any other Democrat in the race.

A new Zogby poll shows that Chuck wins the highest percentage of votes against Rick Santorum of any potential Democratic challenger when likely voters learn where the candidates stand on key issues. Chuck led Santorum by 45.4 percent to 43.5 percent among likely Pennsylvania voters compared to Casey's lead of 40.1 to 38.3. These numbers also shows that when Chuck goes head to head against Santorum, more respondents were inclined to vote.

The poll is consistent with a December Quinnipiac poll that showed Casey's support plunging when voters learned of his opposition to legal abortion. A recent poll by Strategic Vision shows an even further slide. The Zogby poll confirms that when Pennsylvanians learn about Bob Casey's positions on the issues, his support slides. When they learn more about Chuck's positions, his support soars.

The poll was commissioned by OpEdNews.com, an online news and opinion journal. An analysis of the survey findings on the OpEdNews.com website breaks down the response of several demographic groups when they learn about Casey’s positions. For example, Casey's support among 18-24 year olds drops from 63 percent to 40 percent; with Protestants, it drops from 47 percent to 30 percent; with liberals, from 95 percent to 68 percent; with moderates, from 64 percent to 53 percent. Casey makes tiny gains among conservatives, rising from four to five percent.

The Zogby survey of 850 likely Pennsylvania voters was conducted on January 26-27. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.