HARRISBURG -- Two different polls released yesterday gave Gov. Ed Rendell and his Republican challenger, Lynn Swann, a reason to sweat and a reason to cheer.

One survey, by IssuesPA/Pew and the Pennsylvania Economy League, had Mr. Swann breathing down the incumbent Democrat's neck, with his hard-core support trailing Mr. Rendell's by 1 percentage point.

The April 17-26 telephone survey of 1,503 adults 18 and older put Mr. Rendell's firm support at 30 percent, with 29 percent for the ex-Steelers wide receiver. Most of the others were classified as undecided, or "swing'' voters.

The other, by a group called Strategic Vision LLP, gave Mr. Rendell a bit more comfort, putting his lead at 49 to 41 percent. Both surveys have theoretical margins of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

It wasn't the first time, and won't be the last time this election year, that different polls showed different results. Just last week, a Keystone Poll had Mr. Rendell up by 49 to 35 percent.

Despite the gap between their numbers, the Pew and Strategic Vision polls aren't necessarily inconsistent because they were measuring different things. The Pew survey was trying to gauge levels of hard-core support, while the Strategic Vision and Keystone polls asked the more traditional polling question: Who would you vote for if the election were held today?

The Strategic Vision and Keystone polls were consistent about the standing of Russ Diamond, the independent candidate for governor. Mr. Diamond, former leader of PA CleanSweep who only recently entered the race, got 3 percent. The IssuesPA/Pew poll didn't mention him.

The Strategic Vision poll had Mr. Rendell ahead of his challenger by the same margin that the likely Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, Bob Casey Jr., leads his opponent, incumbent Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, 49 to 41 percent.

Mr. Santorum in recent months had regularly trailed Mr. Casey by double digits.

Polls often vary in their results because different methods are used. The Strategic Vision survey was taken of 1,200 likely voters from May 5-7.

It asks which candidate the respondent is likely to vote for if the election were held today, and thus includes both hard-core backers as well as those leaning toward one or the other.

The IssuesPA/Pew poll is aimed more at pinpointing only true believers for each candidate, and thus has a much larger group classified as "not strongly committed to either candidate."

Neither poll had good news for the beleaguered state Legislature.

Strategic Vision said 60 percent disapproved of the Legislature's performance and only 24 percent approved, with the rest undecided.

When asked for a one-word description that best fits the Legislature, 69 people said "greedy," according to IssuesPA/Pew. The question was open-ended; participants were not given a list of words from which to choose.

In second place was "good," the word used by 46 people. After that, 36 people said "OK," 35 said "fair," 32 said "poor," 20 said "corrupt," 18 said "slow," 18 said "selfish," 15 said "ineffective" and another 15 used the word "overpaid."

Only one quarter of the respondents said they can trust the Legislature to do what is right "always or most of the time.''

Larry Hugick of Princeton Survey Research Associates International, which did the IssuesPA/Pew poll for the Economy League, said public anger over the legislative pay raises -- enacted in secret last July but then repealed in November -- is evident in the poll results.

"The well-reported furor over the legislative pay raise appears to be having a lasting effect,'' he said.

However, as previous surveys have shown, "Pennsylvanians express low confidence in the Legislature as a whole but have more positive opinions of their own state representatives," he said.

In the IssuesPA/Pew poll, nearly half of the respondents -- 49 percent -- said they were dissatisfied with the way the state is being run, and only 43 percent were satisfied. It was the most negative rating in nearly two years.

The rate of unhappiness was more than 50 percent in four of six regions of the state, with the grumpiness greatest in Philadelphia (61 percent) and southwestern Pennsylvania (53 percent).

The IssuesPA/Pew poll also showed that rising gasoline prices are helping to fuel residents' dissatisfaction.

In March, only 6 percent of respondents cited rising gas prices as the state's most important problem, while 13 percent did in the April poll.