Poll: Voters fed up with government

ATTENTION, Pennsylvania politicians and President Obama - the voters here are so over you.

A Daily News/Franklin & Marshall College Poll yesterday confirmed what you probably already know: People are in a funk and blame government.

A majority, 53 percent, say the state is heading in the wrong direction. The last time a majority thought the state was heading in the right direction was in 2006.

Obama, who won Pennsylvania by 10.4 points in 2008, is taking the heat. Fifty-two percent of those polled don't want him re-elected next year, while 41 percent want to give him a second term.

Poll director G. Terry Madonna said Pennsylvania looks to be very competitive in the 2012 election. "It looks like we're going to be at the center of the action," he said.

By far, the key factor in the funk is "unemployment and personal finances," which ranked at the top with 38 percent when the poll asked about problems facing the state.

The more generic "economy" ranked fourth at 9 percent, behind education and politicians.

"Now the recession has become personal," Madonna said. "It's not about somebody else's job, somebody else's economy."

Despite voters' unhappiness with the president, the poll showed that they aren't convinced that the Republicans vying for their party's presidential nomination can do any better.

Obama bested former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney 36 percent to 30 percent in a head-to-head race and Texas Gov. Rick Perry 38 percent to 27 percent. Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum polled better here than in national polls because of higher name recognition, losing to Obama 39 percent to 31 percent.

A Quinnipiac University national poll released yesterday showed that 24 percent of Republican voters back Perry, taking the role of front-runner from Romney, who had 18 percent support. Santorum ranked at just 1 percent.

Madonna acknowledged that Romney is doing better here than in national polls, where Perry's embrace of tea-party politics has wooed the conservative base.

"That's our state," Madonna said. "Our state is still a very moderate, centrist state."

Strong majorities in the poll continue to support selling the state liquor-store system (56 percent) and taxing companies that drill for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale region (65 percent).

Seventy-two percent said that any natural-gas tax should be shared by the state and communities where the drilling occurs. The poll found people uncertain about the industry, with 39 percent saying the benefits outweigh any environmental concerns while 35 percent say they do not and 26 percent were not sure. Seventy-two percent oppose the state's policy of allowing natural-gas drilling in state-owned forests.