Scott Walker's popularity has continued to decline over the last three months and Wisconsin voters now say they would vote to recall him if there was an election today. They also say they would pick either Russ Feingold or Tom Barrett over Walker in a head to head match up.
43% of voters now approve of the job Walker is doing to 54% who disapprove. When PPP polled the state in late February it was 46% of voters approving to 52% disapproval. Walker's numbers now are virtually identical to where they were before with Democrats and Republicans but with independents he's seen his popularity continue to decline from a 45/53 approval spread to a 40/56 one.
Voters split evenly in February at 48% on the question of recalling Walker but now the needle has moved towards bare majority support for removing him early from office. 50% say they would support a recall to 47% who are opposed. That Walker's disapproval is 54% but the support for recall is only 50% shows there are still some voters who dislike him but wouldn't go so far as to support removing him from office, but there aren't many.
Although voters are pretty evenly divided on whether they would support a recall there's less doubt about who they would vote for if there actually was a recall election. They say they would pick Feingold over Walker by a 52-42 margin and Barrett over him by a 50-43 spread. In both of those match ups Democrats are more committed to replacing Walker than Republicans are to keeping him, and independents go on the side of swapping him out for Feingold or Barrett as well.
It's impossible to say whether Democrats will be able to sustain this strong anti-Walker sentiment all the way through the time a recall election would actually be held. But it bodes well for them that as Wisconsin has left the headlines, at least nationally, Walker's numbers have just continued to get worse at home. And they have two potential replacements in Feingold (51/38 favorability) and Barrett (41/34) who are pretty well known and decently well liked on a statewide basis.
The way these numbers are shaking out in Wisconsin reflects what we're seeing a lot of places. Independents are moving back toward the Democrats after being strongly supportive of Republicans last year. And Democrats are more unified than Republicans in many places right now, a contrast to last year where a decent number of Democratic voters supported Republicans with almost voters coming back in the other direction.
And the implications of this finding are probably limited for the upcoming State Senate recall elections but by a 50-42 margin voters in the state would rather have the Democrats in control of that body than the Republicans.
Full results here
Very nice news for the Democrats here (I was expecting worse numbers for Walker on the recall, better Republican numbers on the generic state senate.)
ReplyDeleteRight now, the generic state senate poll is running only 1 point behind Obama's 2008 #s (in the sample.) If that holds, Democrats will pick up all 6 of their recalls, while Republicans would win 0 of theirs. Very nice.
Thanks for doing a state legislature question!
ReplyDeleteWalker is tainted by big business and should be removed immediately.
ReplyDeleteAll these statistics about the opinions of independent voters just point up the fact that large numbers of independent voters simply don't pay much attention to matters of policy and politics. They vote almost randomly, mainly on the basis of emotions with little or no thought or understanding of what the hell they're doing.
ReplyDeleteI live in Wisconsin and many of my neighbors voted for Walker. They now say they regret their vote. My family feels he does not represent what we feel Wisconsin is all about: leaders in education, social programs, environmental concerns, harmonious politics. He was a mistake and he will be recalled.
ReplyDeleteWhy do we care about what happens in Wisconsin? All they have is cheese and the Packers. Both could move next door to Michigan or Minnesota. Michigan, specifically, could use a winning football team
ReplyDeleteLOL, Of course Walker looks bad when polled by DailyKOS/PPP. I see you are working overtime on the messaging with poll after poll showing Dems winning every race polled. Pretty soon you'll be coming out with a poll showing Obama leading in UT, ID & TX. You are not even pretending to hide your bias and sample rigging anymore.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember a Repub leading in any poll you guys have taken recently, which is impossible unless Dems are running against Dems everywhere. What a joke this once reputable polling outfit has become.
Even if this is a liberal leaning poll the fact is that Bloomberg also did a poll awhile back and found he had lost support badly as well. He just gave another 250 million to his corporate buddies thanking them for their support. This time the insurance industry, cause they are hurting so much. As he continues to do these asinine sorts of things one wonders if he even cares about the recalls, and is just trying to pass as much crap as he can before he is recalled
ReplyDeleteIf you want to replace Walker it can wait until the next election. A recall vote is a joke. There is a reason an elected offical has a limit on their term. State employees are a bunch of crybabys. By the way you suck at your job. The majority of you clowns voted him into office. A majority of you thought Ted Tompson was a fool also. Look at what he did for you, Cheese Head is not an endearing nick name. It means Dumb A**.
ReplyDeleteLet he who is not a Dumb A** throw the first stone... 'Ted Thompson.'
ReplyDelete"A recall vote is a joke. There is a reason an elected offical has a limit on their term."
ReplyDeleteThere's also a reason why recall laws are on the books and why the criteria are what they are. It's a high bar and it's being met.
The people of Wisconsin are realizing they made a tremendous mistake. Luckily, the Wisconsin pencil comes with an eraser.
Don't put any of those turd-like johnsonville products on your grills this summer!
ReplyDeleteThe family that owns this worst of the wurst company underwrote scotty walker and his perverted repug friends - including tons of money to prevent recalls!
Working Americans need to stop handing money over to the business/corporate/fascist interests that have unleashed all the economic terrorism against working families and children - Americans with little or no voice in the political process.
Even though koch's and walker grill out rib-eye steaks, the family that owns this perverted sausage company underwrote walker to tune of more than $50,000.
Pleases don't put any of those johnsonville highly-processed and marginally-edible meat-like substances on your grill.
They are stuffed with chicken crap and pig feces and the casings they use are encrusted with excrement (both inside and out).
don't forget liebham who wrote the bill for voter id, he cost us 6 million where does that money come from? also bob z independant voted with walker on all bills plus added the police and fire, he used the independant label because either party didn't want him, hopefully those 2 are gone when there 1 year is up, put them both in a bag and shake it up and you still get to goof balls
ReplyDelete