Posted on 02/21/2010 10:59:33 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Wisconsin incumbent Democrat Russ Feingold leads his two best-known announced Republican challengers for the U.S. Senate in the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state.
Feingold leads real estate entrepreneur Terrence Wall 47% to 39%. Just six percent (6%) would choose some other candidate given that match-up, while seven percent (7%) are undecided.
Against another potential GOP opponent, businessman Dave Westlake, Feingold currently holds a 47% to 37% lead but again fails to receive 50% support. Six percent (6%) like another candidate, and 10% are undecided.
Any incumbent who attracts less than 50% support at this point in a campaign is considered potentially vulnerable.
Little has changed over the past month in the hypothetical match-up of Feingold and former Republican Governor Tommy Thompson, who has yet to decide if he’s officially running. Thompson holds a 48% to 43% edge over Feingold. Three percent (3%) prefer some other candidate, and five percent (5%) are undecided.
Thompson held nearly the same lead over Feingold in January, 47% to 43%.
Thompson, who served as governor of the state from 1987 to 2001 and as secretary of Health and Human Services in President George W. Bush’s first term, is being urged by Republicans to enter the race. Feingold is seeking a fourth six-year term in the Senate this November.
Feingold, who recently announced that he has a sizable financial war chest for the fall campaign, is the prohibitive favorite in the race, but like many Democratic incumbents, his numbers appear to be hurt by the prevailing negative national mood.
Rasmussen Reports also has recently surveyed Senate races in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Florida, Connecticut, Pennyslvania, Ohio, Oregon and Washington. Most show a troubling political environment for the Democratic candidates.
Barack Obama carried Wisconsin with 56% of the vote in November 2008. Now 47% of Wisconsin voters approve of Obama's job performance as president, with 27% who strongly approve. Fifty-two percent (52%) disapprove of the job Obama is doing, including 38% who strongly disapprove. This is roughly in line with his job approval ratings in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.
Forty-three percent (43%) of Wisconsin voters rate their own personal finances as good or excellent, while 16% say their finances are poor. But just 21% expect their finances to improve, while 40% think they will get worse.
Twenty-eight percent (28%) of Wisconsin voters share a very favorable opinion of Feingold, but 30% view him very unfavorably.
Thompson receives very favorable marks from 25% and very unfavorable reviews from 17%.
Wall is much less known at this point, with just five percent (5%) who view him very favorably and 11% who view him very unfavorably. Thirty-one percent (31%) of Wisconsin voters share no opinion of Westlake at this time.
For Westlake, very favorables total three percent (3%) and very unfavorables 12%.
At this point in a campaign, Rasmussen Reports considers the number of people with a strong opinion more significant than the total favorable/unfavorable numbers.
Forty-six percent (46%) of Wisconsin voters believe it is possible to balance the federal budget without raising taxes, but 32% disagree.
Forty-eight percent (48%) favor an across-the-board tax cut for all Americans. Thirty-four percent (34%) are opposed. Yet 60% think cutting taxes is a better way to create jobs than increased government spending. Only 15% say more government spending is a better job-creator.
Fifty-one percent (51%) say the United States and its allies are winning the war on terror, but 16% think the terrorists are winning.
Wisconsin voters are less closely divided than voters in most of the country over whether America is safer today than it was before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks: 44% say yes; 34% say no.
Three-out-of-four (75%) voters in the state trust the judgment of the American people more than that of the country’s political leaders when it comes to important national issues.
Seventy-three percent (73%) believe the federal government has become a special interest group. Nearly the same number (72%) say government and big business often work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors.
Well, it's really no mystery. WI has a VERY weak GOP and only a handful of decent Republican candidates across the board. Guess most of us are busy raising kids, farming and feeding the rest of ya, and running small businesses. ;)
In North Dakota the legislature meets every two years (the January after the November election) for 60 legislative days.
There are a large number of good Republicans in both the state house and senate. They have time to raise kids, run businesses, and farms.
The Demorats will also run more candidates who will stay in office-they cannot make it anywhere else. What careers did any of the Kennedys have except a political one?
If Terrence Wall is within 6 points, I’d rather go with him. He’s conservative, and a fresh face; as opposed to Tommy Thompson.
Wall is my guy, too. Tommy has his points, and he was a good Governor for us, though no fiscal conservative.
Mr. Wall has a lot of money and a lot of business experience. Rumor has it that he’ll soon be running ads showing how many jobs he has created, versus the number of jobs Feingold has created; One for himself and a few for his staffers, all at Taxpayer expense! ;)
good find Diana. Thanks for the post.
Almost every rat Senate seat is somewhat at risk.
There’s even open hope about Larry Kudlow maybe having half a chance against Chuck Schumer. (I dare not hope)
Besides Ancient Hawaii Senator A (if RINO Governor Lingle doesn’t run), Pat Leahy, Schumer and Babs Milkulski the safest rat seat looks like Connecticut with the non-incumbent.
If ever there was year to get a top tier candidate for every race. An unprecedented clean sweep would be theoretically possible if Governor’s Lingle and Douglas ran in HI and VT and Steele or Erlich ran against Babs. (!) I feel pie in the skyish for even typing that.
Tommy Thompson Senate runs gets more likely: http://hotair.com/archives/2010/03/01/thompson-feingold-match-getting-closer/
Thompson probably sees that this year may be the best in a generation electorally.
EMAIL THAT I JUST RECEIVED. AWESOME!
Obama has been a wake-up call for this country. Please read below.
Barack Obama has done more for America in his first year than most past presidents.
That is right, I will say it. Thank GOD for Barack Obama!
WHY?
He destroyed the Clinton Political Machine…
– Driving a stake thru the heart of Hillary’s Presidential aspirations. Something no Republican was ever able to do.
Remember when a Hillary Presidency scared the daylights out of you!
– He killed off the Kennedy Dynasty. No more Kennedys trolling Washington looking for booze and women wanting rides home.
American women and Freedom are safer tonight!
– He is destroying the Democratic Party before our eyes!
· Dennis Moore had never lost a race – quit
· Evan Bayh had never lost a race – quit
· Byron Dorgan – had never lost a race – quit
· Harry Reed - GONE
These are just a handful of the Democrats whose political careers Obama has destroyed! By the end of 2010 dozens more will be!
In December of 2008 the Democrats were on the rise. In the last two election cycles they had picked up 14 senate seats and 52 house seats. The press was touting the death of the Conservative Movement and the Republican Party.
In one year Obama put a stop to all of this and will probably give the house, if not the senate back to the Republicans.
He has completely exposed liberals and progressives for what they are. Every Generation seems to need to relearn the lesson on why they should never actually put liberals in charge. He is bringing home the lesson very well!
* Liberals tax, borrow and spend – check
* Liberals won’t bring themselves to protect America – check
* Liberals want to take over the economy – check
* Liberals think they know what is best for everyone – check
* Liberals aren’t happy till they are running YOUR life - check
He has brought more Americans back to conservatism than anyone since Reagan.
In one year, he rejuvenated the Conservative movement and brought out to the streets millions of Freedom Loving Americans.
Name me one other time in your life that you saw your friends and neighbors this interested in taking back America .
In all honesty one year ago I was more afraid than I had ever been in my life. Not of the economy but of the direction our country was going. I thought Americans had forgotten what this country was all about. My neighbors, friends, strangers proved to me that my lack of confidence of the Greatness and Wisdom of the American people was flat out wrong.
When the American People wake up, no smooth talking teleprompter reader can fool them!
Barack Obama woke up these Great Americans!
Again I want say, Thank you Barack Obama!
Wow. Let’s see. Vulnerable seats:
1. Wisconsin, 2. Illinois, 3. Connecticutt, 4. New York, 5. PA, 6.Delaware, 7. North Dakota, 8. Arkansas, 9. Colorado, 10. Nevada, 11. California and possibly 12. Washington. And 13. Robert Byrd has about a 50-50 chance of surviving, and now 14. Lautenberg of New Jersey has cancer.
Well he certainly has been the ‘’cure’’ worse than the sickness. I’d often thought Obama was a kind of living objection lesson in what a dangerous yet popular fool can do to something so much to the detriment that it wakes sane people up. Barrack The Bolsheviks kind of like the house on fire—you’ve got to put him out. But I wouldn’t count Hillary out, as long as that woman is breathing she’ll still be running for office and isn’t one of RFK’s kids running for office?
If Thompson doesn’t run then Mark Neumann should be coaxed out of the Gubernatorial race where Scott Walker is the natural choice anyway.
Neumann is a bit of a has-been, having now been out of office 12 years. He did run a respectable race against Feingold in ‘98 where he lost by just 2% (58.6%-48.4%), IIRC losing partly because of a dirty trick employed by one of Feingold’s workers where some young lady posed a question to Neumann at a meeting and he took umbrage and she “cried” and it was reported Neumann was “mean.” It was all set up, of course.
Feingold has never been overwhelmingly popular (less so than Herb Kohl, though Kohl’s money has chased off serious challengers), and his last race he won by an unimpressive 55-44% (contrasted with the last Dem in the seat, Gaylord Nelson, who won his 2nd and 3rd terms with 62% before narrowly falling to Bob Kasten in 1980, 48-50%).
I didn’t vote for John MeCain, and some day folks are going to thank me.
God save the republic.
I remember Neumann teased us by filing to run in 2004 (but it was just to retire debt).
Now he’s running a pointless race for Governor.
I didn’t vote for John MeCain, and some day folks are going to thank me.
God save the republic.
++++++++++++++++
Help get rid of him forever
Dayum that’s good!
I think any of us Freepers could have written that. It’s an observation that most of us have made at one time or another, and is right on target.
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