The governor’s race tightened considerably in the last month, but Republican Gov. Tom Corbett still trails Democratic challenger Tom Wolf by a wide margin, according to a new Franklin & Marshall College poll released Tuesday.

Mr. Wolf had the support of 53 percent of traditionally counted likely voters, including those leaning toward him, to 40 percent for Mr. Corbett, who closed the gap by convincing many Republicans he deserves another four years in office, according to the poll.

Last month, Mr. Wolf led among these likely voters by 54 percent to 34 percent.

“(It’s) Republican voters coming back home largely on the charge that Wolf is a tax-and-spend liberal,” said G. Terry Madonna, Ph.D., the poll director. “I think it’s the tax issue that matters.”

The Corbett campaign has run weeks of television commercials saying Mr. Wolf will sharply raise income and other taxes that hurt the middle class.

F&M outlined its results somewhat differently than its earlier polls, using different samples culled from the same group of 738 registered voters surveyed, samples that produced quite different results.

All had Mr. Wolf substantially ahead.

The poll was conducted between Oct. 20 and Sunday.

Among the 738 registered voters, Mr. Wolf led Mr. Corbett 50 percent to 32 percent with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points. This sample does not screen for how likely someone is to vote.

The traditional likely voter sample — voters who told surveyors they are very interested in voting or certain to vote — produced Mr. Wolf’s 53-40 margin. This sample had 326 voters and a margin of error of plus or minus 5.1 percentage points.

The other likely voter sample — known as “historical likely voters” and covering people who actually voted in the last five general elections — generated even better news for Mr. Corbett. That sample of 341 voters put Mr. Wolf’s lead at 46 percent to 38 percent with a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points. This result is also in line with the results produced by Republican-leaning pollsters such as Magellan Strategies, which two weeks ago had Mr. Wolf’s lead down to 7 points.

The traditional likely voter sample is the one most often used by pollsters just before an election, but Corbett campaign officials have sharply criticized Dr. Madonna’s methodology based on their beliefs that its models of voter turnout skewed toward Democrats.

Dr. Madonna said he decided to publicize several different models because of doubts that voter turnout will reach the levels of previous governor elections.

“This looks like a horrendously low turnout, and that’s what that (historical likely voters) model is based on,” Dr. Madonna said.

He said the traditional likely voters result is probably still the most reliable, but clearly Mr. Wolf’s margin has narrowed and it’s because of renewed Republican support for Mr. Corbett.

In August, his job approval rating among Republican registered voters stood at 39 percent. It was up to 50 percent in September and 56 percent in the latest poll. More Republicans also began believing Mr. Corbett deserves re-election — 46 percent in August, 53 percent last month and 63 percent in this poll.

Overall, however, the poll numbers still favor Mr. Wolf.

■ Fewer than three in 10 voters (28 percent) think the state is headed in the right direction with more than three in five (61 percent) thinking it’s on the wrong track. Only three in 10 (30 percent) said Mr. Corbett is doing a good or excellent job with more than two thirds (68 percent) saying he’s doing only a fair or poor job.

■ Favorable views of Mr. Corbett rose 6 percentage points to 31 percent, but 50 percent still view him unfavorably. Favorable views of Mr. Wolf stayed about the same at 40 percent, but his unfavorable rating rose from 31 percent to 36 percent.

■ Education remained the top issue in the governor’s race (named by 25 percent of voters), but taxes inched up to second (16 percent), further evidence of the success Mr. Corbett had in the last month coloring Mr. Wolf’s reputation.

■ Only about a third of voters (34 percent) believe Mr. Corbett deserves re-election. That’s up from three in 10 (30 percent) last month, but almost three in five (59 percent) still think it’s time for a change.

Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com