Walker leads all but Feingold

Scott Walker's approval numbers have dropped since November. On our final pre election poll we found 51% of Wisconsin voters approving of him to 46% who disapproved. That's dropped now to 48% approval and 49% disapproval. The decline has come mostly with Democrats, who have gone from 15% approval of him down to 9%.

Nevertheless Walker leads all but one of the Democrats we tested against him. He's up 4 points on Ron Kind at 46/42, 5 on Peter Barca at 48/43, 6 on Jon Erpenbach at 48/42, 7 on Steve Kagen at 48/41, and 9 on Mahlon Mitchell at 48/39.

It's worth noting that none of these Democrats have particularly high name recognition. Out of this group Kind is the most well known at 45% name recognition, followed by Barca at 37%, Erpenbach and Kagen at 34%, and Mitchell at 26%. Most of the undecideds in these match ups are Democrats, meaning that if any of the match ups actually materialized they would probably get closer. Nevertheless, Walker is close to 50% in all of them and certainly showed himself to be a survivor last year.

The Democrat with the best shot at Walker- just as we found in all of our pre-recall election polling last year- would be Russ Feingold. Feingold has thoroughly rehabilitated his image after his 2010 loss and is now seen favorably by 53% of voters in the state to 37% with a negative opinion. That makes him more popular than any other major political figure in the state. He would start out leading Walker 49/47 in a hypothetical head to head, including a 52/42 lead with independents.

There could be a more straight forward path back to elected office in Feingold's future though. Johnson has not proven to be a very popular Senator- only 37% of voters approve of the job he's doing to 41% who disapprove. In a hypothetical rematch Feingold would lead Johnson 52/42, including a 55/37 advantage with independents. Much can change over the next 3 years but at least for now it looks like Feingold's prospects against Johnson would be a lot better than against Walker.

And on the topic of Johnson, whose name recognition increased after his January fight with Hillary Clinton, it's worth noting that Wisconsin voters have a higher opinion of Clinton than him by a 53/42 margin.

Full results here

Comments

[Stephen Braunginn]

Russ Feingold, as of now, has no interest in re-entering elected politics. That's the public view so we should hold his name back. There is a way to beat Walker but we need a complete reorganization of the state Dem Party. Am I the only one that thinks it's weird that the president and Tammy Baldwin won in this state but we can't get a Democratic Senate, Assembly or governor? Whoever runs must have the best methods to help rural WI residents learn that Walker is not for them. That's the message. That's why Walker's numbers are sinking; people are learning but not enough. We need a "Pat Lucey" Democrat. To reiterate, Russ is not running...yet, so let's move on.

[LiberalAgenda21]

Johnson is so toast. I can't stand him because I know he's not intelligent enough to be a United States Senator and yet he carries himself with such confidence.

Checking Hillary Clinton? Really?