HARRISBURG, Pa. - Sen. John Kerry has overtaken the other Democratic presidential candidates in the battleground state of Pennsylvania and apparently holds a slight lead over President Bush nine months before the election, a new poll shows.
The survey by the Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University Polling Institute showed the senator from Massachusetts favored by 61 percent of Pennsylvania Democrats, compared to only 15 percent for runner-up Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, the Pennsylvania leader in a similar poll taken in December, had slipped to third place with only 9 percent.
In a hypothetical one-on-one match, Kerry was supported by 50 percent of the respondents and Bush by 45 percent.
The horse-race results were accompanied by a decline in the president's statewide approval rating to 47 percent - the lowest detected by Quinnipiac since it began polling in Pennsylvania in June 2002 - and signs of widespread concern about the state's economy.
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