Nov 1, 2012 4 min read

STATE COLLEGE – Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and his Republican challenger Tom Smith hit the campaign trail Thursday after taking several days off as Pennsylvania weathered a massive storm.If there was a spring in Casey’s step, it might be because he also seems to have weathered a frightening disintegration of his advantage in independent polls.Three out of four independent polls in the past two weeks gave Casey a solid lead despite an advertising barrage by Smith, who is on course to outspend Casey by two-to-one with a little help from outside groups, including now the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.After a stop at a State College eatery, the Corner Room, one of the town’s oldest and most popular establishments, Casey put a silver lining on polling leads that, until recently, had shown a neck-and-neck race after narrowing from double-digit percentages in August.”One of the benefits of having a race which has tightened … is that people understand the difference and the contrast between me and my opponent comes into sharper focus,” Casey said. “That’s good for voters.”In York, Smith greeted several dozen supporters at the county’s Republican Party offices as part of a Lancaster-to-York-to-Murrysville trip he took with Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson on his campaign bus. At the small reception, Johnson told the crowd it was like 2010 all over again – when Republicans swept numerous congressional seats and governorships – and York County Republican Party chairman Bob Wilson reminded a man there, “It’s 1980 all over again,” a reference to another big year for Republicans when Ronald Reagan took office.”We’ve got this campaign down now,” Smith told the crowd. “It’s neck-and-neck.”Asked later about the polls in which he trails, Smith pointed to a separate, recent poll that showed the race close and his own campaign’s internal polling that, he said, show a dead heat.On Thursday, Smith heard he would get more outside help, this time from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce with TV ads attacking Casey.In State College, Casey circulated the restaurant and found a friendly crowd among the diners, including a group of nursing home residents who didn’t know he would show up.”I know him, he’s a good man and he takes after his father,” said Joyce Rossman, referring to the late Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey.Casey, a key ally of organized labor, is running as a moderate as he seeks a second, six-year term after knocking off archconservative Rick Santorum in 2006. The 52-year-old Scranton resident is a veteran of numerous statewide races and is a former state treasurer and auditor general. Smith, 65, is a newcomer to statewide politics after making a fortune in Western Pennsylvania’s coal mining industry. The tea party favorite is running as a conservative and is tapping his personal wealth to heavily outspend Casey.In Pennsylvania, one of the nation’s oldest states, Medicare has been a major issue for Casey and Smith, and each accuses the other of being out to wreck it.Smith supports giving Medicare recipients the option to take a government check to help buy coverage from a private insurer as a way to cut the program’s costs, but Casey has linked Smith to Republican plans in Congress that would bring more dramatic changes and deeper cuts to the program.Smith, meanwhile, has criticized Casey for voting to cut more than $700 billion over 10 years from Medicare reimbursements to hospitals, insurance companies and other service providers as part of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.Reducing the reimbursements extended Medicare’s solvency by eight years and the money is being used to close the “doughnut hole” carved into the original Medicare prescription drug benefit created under a Republican Congress in 2003.Smith told the crowd Thursday that the first thing he wants to do when he gets to Washington “is repeal Obamacare.”The election is Tuesday.