The Marquette Law School poll of Wisconsin voters released Wednesday shows Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker holding a lead over all four of his potential Democratic opponents in the event of a recall election in Wisconsin.
Mr. Walker is currently awaiting the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board to complete its review of the signatures that were recently submitted by Walker recall activists. The board is said currently be looking at more than 700,000 submitted signatures.
Verification for all of the signatures could take up to three months, The Washington Post reports.
The Marquette poll asked voters to consider hypothetical elections featuring Mr. Walker going head to head against several likely Democratic challengers for his position.
The closest candidate was Milwauke mayor Tom Barett, who finished with 44 percent of the votes, six percentage points behind Governor Walker.
Former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, is the only Democrat who has actually declared that she plans to run if the recall election is granted. The Wisconsin governor leads Ms. Falk by a 49 to 42 percent margin.
Former U.S. Rep. David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat, is trailing Mr. Walker by a margin of 49 to 43 percent, and Mr. Walker also leads Wisconsin Democratic state Sen. Tim Cullen 50 percent to 40 percent.
“The old line ‘you don’t beat somebody with nobody’ is true. Other polls have asked only if Governor Walker should be recalled and have found closer races,” said Professor Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll. ”But in the end, some specific Democrat will face Governor Walker. The results show a competitive race but one in which Governor Walker starts with an advantage.”
The recall efforts against Mr. Walker heated up in the fall, after Mr. Walker’s decision to implement legislation last spring that essentially ended collective bargaining rights for public employees in the state of Wisconsin.
In response to the recall efforts against him, Mr. Walker is asking his supporters to volunteer to help with his “verify” effort. On his website, the Wisconsin governor has a page where supporters can sign up to volunteer to help verify the signatures submitted by recall activists.
If a recall election does come about, Mr. Walker will certainly have the finances to run a recall campaign, as he recently reported that he raised over $4 million in campaign donations over the last month alone.
When recall groups submitted their signatures to the Wisconsin GAB last week, the Wisconsin governor was in New York City attending a fundraising event with Republican donors.
His staff is confident that he can win the recall election, as it seems likely to happen. More than 700,000 signatures were turned in last week, that’s nearly 200,000 more than the required number to force the recall election.
“We are confident that because the positive effects of [Walker’s] reforms continue to create more jobs and keep more money in the pockets of taxpayers, voters will reaffirm the decision they made a year ago,” said Ciara Matthews, communications director for Mr. Walker’s campaign team.
The Marquette poll was conducted among 701 registered Wisconsin voters between January 19th and January 22nd with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
