UPDATE Wednesday, May 2, 2012 1:15 p.m. CDT: Poll details released here.
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The latest Marquette University Law School Poll shows Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in a dead heat when matched against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in the recall election scheduled for June 5th.
Barrett is one of four Democrats facing off in a primary election next Tuesday.
Full details have not been released yet. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Barrett leads Walker 47% to 46% among registered voters, but trails Walker 48% to 47% among likely voters.
That's "just about as close to a tie as you can possibly get," said the poll's director, visiting Marquette political science professor Charles Franklin.
Barrett leads his closest challenger in the primary, Kathleen Falk, by a 38% to 21% margin. The Journal Sentinel is reporting the numbers based on a webcast by school officials currently in progress. The full details are scheduled to be released shortly. I will include a link as soon as it is available.
So, while we wait for the full details to be released, let's review:
Scott Walker raises 25 million dollars since last November, and spends about 21 million of it (minus a few tens of thousands diverted to his legal defense fund) to try to shore up his support.
Tom Barrett gets into the race about three weeks ago, raises about 750 thousand dollars, and is essentially tied with Walker according to what most observers describe as a conservative-leaning poll that is weighted heavily with suburban Milwaukee voters.
Nice investment, Scott Walker.
More discussion of the big money, out-of-state, corporate Walker backers in Puddytat's diary.
UPDATE Wednesday, May 2, 2012 1:15 p.m. CDT: Poll details released here.
The poll also shows President Obama leading Romney in the state 51% to 42%.
Here's something that caught my eye:
Issues important to Democratic primary voters
Democratic primary voters ranked “creating new jobs,” picked by 46 percent, as the most important consideration in their choice of a nominee. Twenty-five percent said “defeating Scott Walker,” while 14 percent said “reducing political divisions in the state.” Twelve percent picked “restoring collective bargaining rights for public employees.”
Jobs, jobs jobs. Keep hammering away at Walker's total failure at creating jobs and we will win.
table from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics