Mary Burke and Scott Walker (PHOTO: Jackie Johnson)
A new Marquette poll shows the governor still leads his likely challenger heading toward Wisconsin’s gubernatorial election this November.
Republican Governor Scott Walker’s seven-point lead over Democratic challenger Mary Burke — former commerce secretary under the Doyle Administration — is nearly unchanged from the previous poll.
Walker leads Burke, 48 to 41 percent. Walker held a 47 to 41 percent advantage in the most recent Marquette Law School Poll, taken in January. With a margin of error at 3.5 percent, there’s no statistical change.
Marquette University Law School Professor Charles Franklin says the results of his poll remained statistically the same as January’s survey, despite campaign adds hitting the airwaves hard beginning in February.
Meanwhile, when it comes to the governor’s job approval, it’s split. Forty-seven percent of respondents approve of the job Walker is doing as governor while an equal 47 percent disapprove, with 5 percent saying they don’t know. In January, Walker’s approval rating was slightly higher, at 51 percent, with 42 percent disapproving.
Also, 54 percent say the state is headed in the right direction while 42 percent say it is on the wrong track; this has changed very little from January’s 54-40 percent split.
NOTE: The poll of 801 Wisconsin registered voters released Wednesday was conducted by cell phone and land line March 20-23 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points.