Wisconsin
By Eric Ostermeier on June 17, 2008
The University of Wisconsin's latest Badger Poll (conducted June 8-10 of 506 likely voters) provides an illuminating snapshot about its residents' views on race in America—or at least what they are willing to tell a pollster in a telephone interview. The poll revealed, firstly, that the Badger State is currently...
By Eric Ostermeier on June 10, 2008
A new Rasmussen survey conducted June 5th of 500 likely voters in the Badger State finds Barack Obama leading John McCain 45 to 43 percent—within the poll's margin of error. Six percent would support some other candidate and six percent were undecided. The new poll continues a 3-month trend with...
By Eric Ostermeier on May 11, 2008
The latest Rasmussen poll of 500 likely voters in Wisconsin finds a record number of Badger State residents give President Bush "poor" marks in assessing his job performance. For the first time, a majority of Wisconsinites (51 percent) say Bush is doing poorly in a survey conducted on May 5th,...
By Eric Ostermeier on April 14, 2008
The latest in a series of biannual polls conducted by Wisconsin Public Radio and St. Norbert College over the past decade demonstrates that Wisconsinites view the state of the nation—its institutions and economy—to be of grave concern. An incredibly low 18 percent of the 400 adults surveyed between March 25th...
By Eric Ostermeier on April 11, 2008
In polling conducted in all but one of a half-dozen battleground states during the past week to ten days, Barack Obama continues not only to lead John McCain, but also perform stronger against McCain than his Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton. Although Obama's advantage over McCain is in single digits in...
By Eric Ostermeier on April 9, 2008
Last year, Wisconsin appeared ready to vote for a Democratic presidential nominee for the sixth consecutive election. Democratic candidates were defeating Republican candidates in most matchup polls and, in generic partisan matchups, Wisconsinites gave Democrats the edge by double digits in polls conducted in Spring 2007, Summer 2007, and as...
By Eric Ostermeier on April 8, 2008
As economic concerns continue to fuel pessimism about the near future, Democratic Governors Jim Doyle (Wisconsin) and Chet Culver (Iowa) face the lowest ratings of their gubernatorial careers. Meanwhile, Minnesota Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty has managed quite successfully to remain fairly popular with his statewide constituency. Culver, who comes from...
By Eric Ostermeier on April 4, 2008
In monthly surveys tracking what is the most important issue facing the next president, the economy has emerged as the dominant issue across the Upper Midwest. SurveyUSA asked 600 likely voters in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin closed-ended questions with eight choices as to what was the most important concern facing...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 31, 2008
Despite relatively positive news coming out of Iraq and a new campaign season that has focused the lens of the news media off the sitting president to the new contenders, George W. Bush cannot shake the horrendous job approval rating that he has faced in the Upper Midwest for...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 21, 2008
In polling conducted just as the Reverend Wright story broke nationally last week, Hillary Clinton appears to have made substantial gains across the Upper Midwest in terms of her relative competitiveness with Republican nominee John McCain, as compared to her competitor Barack Obama. SurveyUSA polls of 500+ registered voters in...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 14, 2008
Last week John McCain, in a somewhat awkward festivity, accepted President George W. Bush's endorsement for the presidency after wrapping up the majority of delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination. McCain, setting aside his staunch support for the still generally unpopular War in Iraq, is the type of Republican...
By Eric Ostermeier on February 19, 2008
7:42 p.m. Polls close in Wisconsin's open primary at 8:00 p.m. CST. Smart Politics live blogging of results with analysis will commence at that time. 8:00 p.m. John McCain is the projected winner of the GOP primary in Wisconsin, according to CNN, NBC News, and Fox News. MSNBC characterized the...
By Eric Ostermeier on February 18, 2008
A new SurveyUSA poll on the eve of the Wisconsin primary shows Democrat Barack Obama to be currently a much more competitive opponent of Republican John McCain than is Hillary Clinton in the Badger State. In a head-to-head matchup poll of 537 registered voters, Obama leads McCain 52 to 42...
By Eric Ostermeier on February 18, 2008
These days Republican candidate Mike Huckabee is asked more about when he will quit the GOP race and why he hasn't already ended his presidential bid more than any questions about policy. Ignoring frequent calls for his exit, Huckabee has campaigned on in the Badger State this past week. The...
By Eric Ostermeier on February 17, 2008
According to a WISC-TV / Research 2000 poll conducted of 400 likely Democratic primary voters February 13-14, Barack Obama has a 47 to 42 percent lead over Hillary Clinton with 11 percent undecided. Obama also polled ahead of Clinton by a narrow 4-point margin in an earlier survey released this...
By Eric Ostermeier on February 14, 2008
While news spread through the media yesterday that Hillary Clinton's campaign had virtually "given up" on winning the Badger State, a new Rasmussen poll conducted on February 13th of 855 likely voters finds Barack Obama leading Clinton by a 47 to 43 percent margin. Rasmussen also reports a fairly large...
By Eric Ostermeier on February 13, 2008
On February 19th, Wisconsin voters will have the somewhat rare opportunity to weigh in on a presidential nomination process while the outcome is at least somewhat in doubt. As Smart Politics wrote on Monday, Wisconsinites will move in greater numbers to the side of Barack Obama, owing to his sweep...
By Eric Ostermeier on February 9, 2008
As contests unfold in small and medium-sized states during the next month, there do not seem to be many opportunities for Hillary Clinton to halt the momentum enjoyed by Barack Obama in recent weeks. Of course, polls are not infallible, as we learn each election season, but both polls and...
By Eric Ostermeier on December 19, 2007
As tracked here at Smart Politics over the past few months, John McCain continues to prove to be the strongest Republican candidate to defeat the Democrats in 2008. McCain consistently, and by wide margins, polls better than his chief GOP rivals in almost all key battleground states—those states that Republicans...
By Eric Ostermeier on December 12, 2007
In one of the few statewide Wisconsin presidential primary polls conducted this year, a new Badger Poll finds a Thompson atop the GOP field. Whether it is a case of false name recognition or whether he has built a surprising base of support in Wisconsin is unclear, but Fred Thompson...
