New poll finds 'blah attitude' toward Trump and Pa. politicians

Winning Pennsylvania was key to President Trump's general election victory in November. Now, the state's voters who supported and opposed Trump are weighing in on his first month in office.

And it is not good news for the new president, with voters questioning his job performance and honesty.

A Franklin and Marshall College Poll being released Thursday shows 24 percent of those voters — the largest segment — listed government and politics as their biggest concerns, while 16 percent pegged education, 12 percent said unemployment and personal finances, and 11 percent pointed to taxes.

Pollster G. Terry Madonna said he found a "blah attitude" among voters toward Trump, along with Gov. Wolf and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, two Democrats up for reelection in 2018.

"We're in a highly unusual period, the likes of which we probably haven't seen since the 1930s," said Madonna, citing a time when the country was divided over the problems and potential of the New Deal. "The fact of the matter is, the polarization is so evident and striking that it colors everything that goes on."

Two of Trump's signature goals -- deporting people who have entered the country illegally and repealing the Affordable Care Act -- barely registered in the poll. Just 1 percent listed immigration as a top concern; 4 percent listed health care and insurance.

Asked specifically about Obamacare, 29 percent said the law should be repealed while 60 percent called for changes to improve it. That split down partisan lines -- 64 percent of self-identified conservatives want the law repealed while just 19 percent of moderates and 3 percent of liberals agreed.

Trump got mixed grades as president. So did the media reporting on him.
Asked to judge the new president's honesty, with 1 being dishonest and 10 being honest, Trump got a 4.5. Again, this issue saw a partisan split -- conservatives gave him a 7.6, moderates ranked him 3.8, and liberals low-balled him at 1.9.

In a split decision, 32 percent of the voters said Trump was covered "very unfairly" while 32 percent said he is covered "very fairly."

Those opinions appear to be guided by the primary news sources used by the poll respondents. They were more likely to see the coverage as unfair if they used cable news, social media, or radio. Voters who used network news or the internet saw the coverage as fair.

Trump's victory created questions about polling during and after the Nov. 8 general election.

Madonna released a poll on Nov. 1 that showed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton leading Trump by 11 percentage points among likely voters in the state. Trump defeated Clinton in Pennsylvania by a slim 0.73 percent.

On Wednesday, Madonna said postelection interviews with people in the poll showed an "overwhelming" shift among undecided voters toward Trump in the last week of the election, a movement his poll did not capture because the final polling calls were made on Oct. 30.

Madonna also said his poll did not adequately capture the "intensity" of Trump support in small towns and rural areas.

As for Trump, a majority of voters (54 percent) in the new poll said he is doing a poor job so far, while 13 percent said he was doing excellent, 19 percent said good, 13 percent said fair, and 1 percent did not know.

That ranking varied widely by region -- a high of 88 percent in Philadelphia ranked Trump as doing a poor job and a high of 40 percent in Southwest Pennsylvania gave him an excellent ranking.

Voters also had mixed feelings about Wolf and Casey.

Just 4 percent said Wolf was doing an excellent job while 34 percent said good, 35 said fair, 19 percent said poor, and 8 percent did not know.

With the state entering another round of budget negotiations, only 1 percent said the economy is in excellent shape, 23 percent said good, 42 percent said bad, 12 percent said very bad, and 23 percent did not know.

Voters said Casey is doing an excellent job (10 percent), good job (27 percent), fair job (31 percent), poor job (14 percent), and 18 percent did not know.

The poll sampled 816 registered voters in Pennsylvania from Feb. 15 to 19. It has a sample error of plus or minus 5 percentage point.