On his radio show, Sean Hannity stated that Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) “picked up 12 points in the polls in the last three months” in his race against Pennsylvania Treasurer Bob Casey (D). Available polls appear to contradict Hannity's claim. While polls indicate that Santorum made marginal gains during the past three months, the totals come nowhere near the 12-point gain Hannity asserted.
Hannity falsely claimed that Santorum gained 12 points on opponent over past three months
Written by Matt Singer
Published
On the May 30 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Fox News host Sean Hannity claimed that Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) “picked up 12 points in the polls in the last three months” in his race against Pennsylvania Treasurer Bob Casey (D). Hannity did not cite the source of his data, and the available polls appear to contradict his claim. While polls indicate that Santorum made marginal gains during the past three months, the totals come nowhere near the 12-point gain Hannity asserted.
A review of major polls indicates that Santorum improved at most 5 points against Casey during the time in question:
Poll
Recent poll
Earlier poll
Gain for Santorum
Quinnipiac
(5/11) 49-36 Casey
(2/13) 51-36 Casey
+ 2 percent
Strategic Vision
(5/10) 49-41 Casey
(1/25) 50-40 Casey
+ 2 percent
Keystone
(5/4) 47-41 Casey
(2/9) 50-39 Casey
+ 5 percent
Rasmussen
(4/27) 51-38 Casey
(1/19) 53-38 Casey
+ 2 percent
Hannity also stated that “Santorum [is] in a very blue of blue state.” However, both U.S. senators from Pennsylvania are Republicans, along with 11 of the 19 members of its delegation in the House of Representatives. President Bush also received about 49 percent of the Pennsylvania vote in the 2004 election.
From the May 30 edition of ABC Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show:
DICK MORRIS [Fox News political analyst]: The big thing that I think you're missing politically is that you have five congressmen -- five senators, really four -- who are Republicans up for re-election in states with very large Hispanic votes. And all four of them are running behind at the moment. Mike DeWine in Ohio, Santorum in Pennsylvania, [Lincoln] Chaffee in Rhode Island, and [Jim] Talent in Missouri. You also have [Conrad] Burns in Montana, but there aren't many Hispanics there. But in those states, you have Hispanic votes that approximate 10 percent or more of the population. And those guys all have to have an amnesty provision for them to get any shot at getting Hispanic votes.
HANNITY: But we've got to go through these state by state. The reason that DeWine is having a problem in Ohio is because of the governor and some corruption scandals that are there that have affected the whole Republican Party in the state of Ohio. That's Issue One. Issue Two: Santorum, he's in a very blue of blue state, and you know what? He's picked up 12 points in the polls in the last three months. So he's moving in the right direction, and he has come out against any amnesty program.
Matt Singer is an intern at Media Matters for America.