Poll of voters shows Dean leads the pack

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Presidential hopeful Howard Dean is pulling ahead of the Democratic pack among Pennsylvania voters and is the only candidate to keep President Bush under the crucial 50 percent mark, according to a poll released today.
The Quinnipiac University poll shows Dean, the former Vermont governor, holding a double-digit lead over his closest Democratic rival in the Keystone State -- the nation's fifth-largest electoral prize. Dean nabbed 28 percent of the 1,092 registered voters surveyed, compared to 17 percent for Sen. Joe Lieberman and 10 percent for Rep. Dick Gephardt.
Former Gen. Wesley Clark collected 9 percent, and Sen. John Kerry had 7 percent, the poll showed. Two months ago, Dean held a mere 5 percent of support among state voters.
"In the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, the Howard Dean bandwagon is staring to roll in Pennsylvania," said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Hamden, Conn.-based Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
"Sen. Lieberman and Rep. Gephardt are holding on, but Gen. Clark and Sen. Kerry are back in single digits," Richards said.
Even more telling, Dean would hold Bush to a 49 percent to 43 percent margin while the president would score 50 percent against Lieberman, Kerry and Clark, and 51 percent against Gephardt, the poll shows.
But a slim majority of Pennsylvania voters are upset with the president for rolling back steep tariffs on steel imports earlier this month -- more than a year before they were set to expire. The tariffs endeared the Republican president to politically key Rust Belt states, including Pennsylvania.