Both Republican gubernatorial candidates lead Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in head-to-head matchups, according to a new poll from the conservative-leaning Rasmussen Reports.
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker received 49 percent of the vote in a matchup with Barrett, who received 42 percent of the vote. In Rasmussen's February report, Walker received 49 percent and Barrett received 40 percent.
Republican candidate Mark Neumann also leads Barrett and received 46 percent of the vote. Barrett received support from 42 percent of voters in a matchup with Neumann.
""That's consistent with other polling that we've seen recently. It is not a tremendous leap, it basically says it's a competitive race, which is what we've been saying all along,"" Charles Franklin, UW-Madison political science professor, said.
According to Franklin, recent polls have shown that between 40 and 50 percent of those surveyed say they still do not know enough about the gubernatorial hopefuls to say whether they favor a particular candidate.
""It would be wrong to think that this is a well-considered opinion that voters have. We collectively really are just getting to know these guys,"" he said.
Fifty-three percent of voters have an at least somewhat favorable opinion of Walker, and 55 percent said they had an at least somewhat favorable view of Barrett. Thirteen percent said they were unsure if they favored Walker, while 17 percent said they were unsure if they favored Barrett.
The poll also showed the U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and former governor Tommy Thompson, who has not yet announced his candidacy, received nearly the same amount of support from those polled. With a statistically insignificant lead, Thompson led Feingold with 47 percentage points versus Feingold's 45 percentage points.
The poll surveyed 500 likely voters by telephone March 16, 2010. The poll had a sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
