Poll: Pennsylvania residents back Arizona immigration law

By Brad Bumsted
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Last updated: 11:16 am

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvanians by a 2-1 margin favor Arizona's immigration law, reflecting sentiment in national polls, an official with Quinnipiac University's polling institute said today.

By a 52 percent to 27 percent margin, Pennsylvanians approve of the law that may prompt protests tonight at the Major League Baseball All-Star game in Anaheim, Calif., says a Quinnipiac poll of 1,367 Pennsylvanians. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 2.7 percent.

Some Latinos object to holding the 2011 game in Arizona.

The law, which takes effect this month, requires police to ask about a person's immigration status when stopped on a reasonable suspicion of being in the country illegally.

"We've seen that in other states just as far from the Mexican border and we've seen it in our national polls," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the polling institute.

A national poll in June found Americans by a 51 percent to 31 percent margin favor the law. The poll found a majority of U.S. voters want a similar law in their states.

Results were almost identical in Ohio, where 45 percent of voters want their state to adopt a version of the law, a Qunnipiac poll found in June.

In Pennsylvania, voters 47 percent to 34 percent favor adoption of a similar law.

"Pennsylvanians like the Arizona law and don't like President Obama's decision to ask the courts to throw it out. In fact, a plurality would like to see a similar law in their own state," said Brown.

About 60 percent of Pennsylvanians believe the Obama administration's lawsuit to block the Arizona law is a bad idea.

Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, filed legislation at the Capitol that he says is patterned after the Arizona measure. Democratic House leaders so far have ignored the bill and are unlikely to move it forward during the few days this fall before the 2009-10 session adjourns in November.

Critics say the Arizona law amounts to racial profiling. But Pennsylvanians, by a 44 percent to 39 percent margin, said they did not believe the law would lead to discrimination.

Separately, the poll found that Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett continued to hold a lead over Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, a Democrat, in the governor's race. Corbett leads Onorato 44 percent to 37 percent, according to the poll.

"The attorney general retains basically the same lead he's had the past two months in the governor's race," Brown said.

Fifty percent of Pennsylvanians disapprove of the job Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell is doing and that is not helpful to Onorato, Brown said.

"Trying to link Onorato and Rendell would probably be helpful to Mr. Corbett," Brown said.

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