Mary Burke, Scott Walker
With less than seven weeks to go before the election, the race for governor in Wisconsin remains a dead heat. According to the latest Marquette University Law School Poll released on Wednesday, Republican Governor Scott Walker and Democratic challenger Mary Burke were tied 46-46 percent among registered voters in the state. Among likely voters, Walker held a slight lead at 49-46.
The poll of 800 registered voters and 589 likely voters was done by phone, between September 11th and 14th. The margin of error for the poll was between +/- 3.5 and 4.1 percent.
In the last Marquette poll released in August, Walker held a slight lead over Burke among registered voters, while Burke had the edge among likely voters. Poll director Charles Franklin says the slight shift is likely a result of Republicans becoming more enthused and engaged in recent weeks. He says those numbers will likely become more important as we draw closer to the November 4th election, noting that “Elections are about both candidate preference and turnout, changes in either can shift elections.”
The race for attorney general has also tightened up significantly. Democrat Susan Happ led Republican Brad Schimel 39-38 percent among registered voters, while Schimel leads 42-41 among likely voters.
Among other findings from the poll, voters continued to forgive Walker for only creating 40 percent of the 250,000 private sector jobs he promised. Only 29 percent of registered voters said reaching the goal was very important. The state’s financial picture is better than it was a few years ago, according to 41 percent of voters, while 27 percent said it was worse.
Voter ID continued to have strong support among voters, with 65 percent of respondents supporting a requirement for voters to show a government-issued photo ID card at the polls and 35 percent opposing the requirement. Franklin says those findings have been relatively consistent over the seven polls where the question has appeared since 2012. The latest poll was in the middle of being conducted when a federal court lifted an injunction blocking Wisconsin’s Voter ID requirement.