Around The Table: Quinnipiac University Releases Latest Poll Information

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - At around noon Thursday, Quinnipiac University released its latest poll information on the election of the next president, and this poll focused on three critical "swing states:" Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

KDKA's Stacy Smith goes around the table, focusing on the polling results for Pennsylvania.

Joining him around the table is Keith Schmidt, who served as the state director for Senator Rick Santorum and he also assisted Santorum in his bid for the republican presidential nomination.

Also around the table is Joe Mistick, who has served as deputy mayor and who has been, and is, involved in democratic politics around the state.

A quick look at Wisconsin shows President Trump leads the top democrats in head-to-head competition.

But, the story is different in Michigan and Pennsylvania, where the leading contenders for the democratic nomination have an edge over the president/

Focusing on Pennsylvania, we find, that according to the registered voters who were polled from Feb. 12 through Feb. 18, three of the six candidates hold an edge of six to eight points over the president.

Biden is ahead by eight, Klobuchar by 7 and Bloomberg by six.

Interestingly, the man who leads the field in polls nationwide, Bernie Sanders has only a four-point lead over the president in Pennsylvania.

The Quinnipiac pollsters also asked about issues, and this is interesting.

In Pennsylvania, 29 percent of those polled said the economy was the most important issue, with health care coming in second and climate change as the third most important issue.

"The difference between the national numbers and the state numbers for Senator Sanders simply shows the follies of the national polls," said Mistick.

"They really don't give us any information that's useful for much of anything other than for those folks who are interested in the horse-race nature of following these campaigns."

Schmidt says in 2016, there wasn't a poll at election day that had President Trump ahead.

What is fascinating is that those polled in the state believe the economy is the most important issue, and at the same time, 57 percent of those polled say their personal situations are better now than they were four years ago.

Also, 70 percent say the Pennsylvania economy is excellent.

Gentlemen, that should be good news for the president, but the same polling shows he trails all of the main democratic candidates.

"It's a real anomaly in the polling because I question whether the fact that you can be uncomfortable with Trump and not like Trump, but like the economy, think you're better off, and still vote your pocketbook," says Schmidt.

He adds no president has been turned out of office in a good economy.

Mistick says he thinks it's astonishing that the economy is this good and President Trump is only polling where he is. He expects him to be in the 60 percent range with the economy as healthy as he is.

The Pennsylvania primary is April 28.