Tommy Thompson leads in U.S. Senate race
Former Governor Tommy Thompson leads among other Republicans in the August 14 primary election for US Senate, according to a new Marquette Law School poll, with 34 percent support of likely primary voters. “Former Governor Thompson, as a four-term governor, you wouldn’t be too surprised if he was doing pretty well in this, and he is, but it’s still only a third of the electorate that is currently saying that they will support him.”
Poll Director Charles Franklin says former Congressman Mark Neumann has 16 percent support; businessman Eric Hovde, 14; and Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, 10 percent. Twenty-five percent were undecided.
Thompson also leads U.S. Representative Tammy Baldwin, the Democratic nominee in the general election for U.S. Senate. “In the case of Baldwin versus Thompson, Thompson leads by eight points, 49-41.”
Franklin says most of the candidates need help in favorability and name recognition. Among the entire sample of registered voters, Thompson is best known, with 84 percent name recognition. He is viewed favorably by 48 percent and unfavorably by 36 percent. Baldwin is less well known, with 57 percent name recognition, which splits 27 percent favorable to 30 percent unfavorable.
There’s less than eight weeks for campaigns to get their get their message out. The senate race has been overshadowed by the recall elections.
More Wisconsinites like the idea of limiting recall elections
Many voters would like to limit the targeting of recalls to office holders involved in criminal wrongdoing, according to the Marquette Law School poll. “Some people would prefer to see recalls only in cases of criminal wrong-doing; others would like to keep the law as it is without any such requirement.”
Professor Franklin says 50 percent of those surveyed would revise the recall rules, while 44 percent would keep the current law. Those numbers flipped from January when the same question was asked. Franklin recalls just 43 percent had said the process should be changed and 53 percent back in January preferred to keep the rules with no restrictions. “So that’s a fairly substantial net shift in the balance of opinion on this.”
Among voters who disapprove of Governor Scott Walker yet prefer limits on the recall, 26 percent simply did not vote. As for folks who disapprove of Walker while supporting current recall law, 13 percent didn’t vote in the election.
The poll was conducted June 13-16 by both land-line and cell phone. The result for Republican primary voters has a margin of error of +/- 5.4 percentage points.