Monday, September 17, 2012
7:00 AM
Baldwin poll has her up on Thompson in Senate race
Polling done for Tammy Baldwin’s campaign has the Madison Dem leading GOP rival Tommy Thompson in their U.S. Senate race.
Baldwin was backed by 50 percent of respondents in the survey conducted Sept. 9-12, while Thompson was favored by 45 percent, according to a memo on the poll prepared by The Feldman Group.
The results were reversed from August polling done for the campaign. That survey found 50 percent backed Thompson, while 44 percent favored Baldwin. Independent polling in August after the Republican primary also had Thompson up by as many as 9 percentage points.
The new Baldwin polling memo said Thompson’s negatives have gone up since he got a post-primary bounce in August. His favorable ratings were 45 percent in each of the campaign’s previous two surveys. But it fell to 39 percent in the latest poll, while his unfavorable rating was up to 46 percent.
The memo attributes the drop to "advertising on his special interest ties," referring to negative campaigning from Baldwin and liberal groups targeting Thompson. The memo also says Baldwin has gained support in each of the media markets where she and her allies are on the air, but not in the Minnesota markets that penetrate Wisconsin, where they aren't running ads.
According to the memo from the Feldman Group, 800 interviews were conducted Sept. 9-12, and the sample was pulled from voters who had participated in the 2008 or 2010 elections or who had registered since that time and were likely to vote this fall. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, a Baldwin spokesman said.
Thirty-four percent of those surveyed described themselves as Democrats, while 28 percent said they were Republicans and 34 percent independents.
-- By JR Ross
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