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By Sean Lengell

SPECTER SLIP

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's conversion to the Democratic Party appears to have done little to help his re-election efforts, a new poll shows.

The senator's positive job approval rating dropped to 34 percent in June compared with 52 percent in March -- the month before he left the Republican Party -- according to the results of a survey of potential Pennsylvania voters released Thursday by the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin and Marshall College.

Even more troubling for the senator is that the proportion of Keystone State residents who say he deserves re-election has declined to 28 percent in June from 40 percent in March.

Mr. Specter's job performance ratings also have dropped among Republicans and independents.

"I think what he's got going is the worst of both worlds," said the poll's director, G. Terry Madonna, in Thursday's Philadelphia Daily News. "Republicans have fallen away from him because he left his party, and Democrats are unhappy with him for lots of different reasons ... Voters have a lot of uncertainty about what he is likely to do."

While the senator currently leads Rep. Joe Sestak among Democratic primary voters, 33 percent to 13 percent, almost half -- 48 percent -- remain undecided.

Mr. Madonna said Mr. Specter's early primary lead is attributed mostly to an early advantage of having statewide name recognition.

Mr. Sestak "is literally an unknown quantity outside his own district," he said. "There's a certain amount of fluidity left in this race, and it's up to Sestak to frame a campaign to take advantage of the situation, if he can."

MR. HOLLYWOOD?