Toomey, Sestak deadlocked in Pennsylvania Senate race

Republican Pat Toomey (left) and Democrat Joe Sestak are literally tied in Pennsylvania's Senate race. A new Quinnipiac University poll finds both men polling at 43 percent, a slight gain for Sestak. He trailed Toomey by two points in late May just after he defeated Arlen Specter for the Democratic nomination.

Still, roughly half of the voters polled tell Quinnipiac they still don't know enough about Sestak or Toomey to indicate a preference for either in the race. That's a striking number considering the national attention the race has generated, and it indicates that this race remains extremely fluid.

With just 111 days until Election Day, Toomey has more cash than Sestak, according to campaign finance reports filed this week. Toomey, who didn’t attract serious opposition in the GOP primary, raised $3.1 million during the last quarter and had nearly $4.7 million in the bank. Sestak raised just $1.9 million and had $2 million in the bank.

But that money could be eclipsed by spending from independent groups, both conservative and liberal, who list Pennsylvania as one of the key battleground states this fall. Earlier this week, the Emergency Committee for Israel, a group aligned with Weekly Standard publisher Bill Kristol and former GOP presidential candidate Gary Bauer, launched an ad attacking Sestak as anti-Israel.

Sestak will no doubt have to fall back on surrogates to help him boost voter turnout in the race, but it might not be a good idea for him to bring in President Obama. According to Quinnipiac, 49 percent of the state’s registered voters disapprove of the job Obama is doing in Washington. That’s virtually unchanged since May but is a dramatic difference compared to a year ago, when Obama’s approval rating in the state was at 66 percent.

Maybe it’s a good thing Sestak is on such good terms with Bill Clinton, who is still popular in the state.