York businessman Tom Wolf remained far ahead of three other contenders for the Democratic nomination for governor in the last week, according to a Franklin & Marshall College poll released Wednesday.
State Treasurer Rob McCord and former state environmental secretary Katie McGinty, who both launched television commercials recently, improved their standing a bit since the last F&M poll, while U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz stayed about the same.
With less than seven weeks to go before the primary election, Wolf had the support of 33 percent of the Democrats surveyed, Schwartz had 7 percent, McCord, 6 percent, and McGinty, 4 percent.
Almost half of Democratic voters (46 percent) remain undecided.
In a February F&M poll, Wolf was at 36 percent; Schwartz, 9 percent; McCord, 3 percent; and McGinty, 1 percent.
Wolf leapt to a wide lead after he began airing television commercials in late January. Even as McCord and McGinty began airing their own commercials in recent weeks, Wolf has kept up his advertising, raising questions about how his opponents can possibly catch up.
Almost three quarters (71 percent) of registered Democrats have seen a television commercial for governor. More than four in five (85 percent) have seen one of Wolf's commercials while about two in five (42 percent) have seen one of McCord's commercials and about the same number (39 percent) had seen a McGinty ad.
G. Terry Madonna, Ph.D., director of the F&M poll, said the challenge for the candidates trailing Wolf will be to distinguish themselves and draw voters to their candidacies when all four candidates agree on most issues.
"They've got an uphill fight. We've got another month gone by," Madonna said. "It's about the television ads and it's about the fact that these candidates agree on 90 percent of the issues."