The effort to recall the governor has us talking a lot about politics – and in many cases, not talking. Political scientist Charles Franklin said the latest Marquette Law School poll found 58 percent of respondents have talked to family and friends about politics at least once a week, and 50 percent have tried to sway someone to their side. All that talking comes at a cost. “Fully 29 percent said there was someone they’d quit talking to about politics, because of the disagreements this year,” said Franklin.
Franklin said they wanted to come up with some numbers to support what we’ve been hearing around the contentious issue of recalling Governor Scott Walker. “There’s certainly a lot of anecdotes that have been floating around about, you know, the Thanksgiving dinner where you can talk to your family about politics,” he said. “At 29 percent, I think it’s certainly got to be paid attention to. It’s not just an anecdote at this point, it’s a significant chunk of the electorate that has experience the conflict over the election with people that they otherwise used to talk to.”