Walker Has 7-Point Lead Over Burke In New Marquette Poll

Gov. Scott Walker leads Mary Burke by a significant margin in the latest Marquette University Law School poll released at noon on Wednesday.

Walker is polling at 50 percent among those who identify as likely voters, whereas Burke is polling at 43 percent — a statistically significant lead outside of the margin of error.

Among all registered voters, Walker leads 46-45 percent. That lead is within the margin of error.

Two weeks ago, another Marquette poll had found that Walker and Burke were tied among likely voters. Pollster Charles Franklin said that it appears Walker has won back some independents.

“The independent voters do move around more. We’ve certainly seen that over the last several polls,” said Franklin.

He said that independent voters could still shift even more in the six days remaining before Election Day.

Franklin said the governor has improved his standing among male voters, more so than Burke has with female voters. He also said that Republicans seem to be getting more intense about voting, with now 93 percent of them saying they are definitely going to the polls. Only 82 percent of Democrats said the same. Franklin, however, said that sort of turnout is not guaranteed, and that as with independent voters things could easily shift before Election Day.

Franklin said Burke now has to decide how much to try to turn registered voters into likely voters or make sure her likely voters do get to the polls.

The poll was conducted before President Barack Obama came to Milwaukee to campaign for Burke and was partly completed before former president Bill Clinton did the same.

In the race for attorney general, Republican Brad Schimel leads Democrat Susan Happ 43 to 39 percent among likely voters. The two are tied at 40 percent among all voters. Both leads are within the margin of error.

The poll was conducted Thursday through Sunday over the cell phone and landline connections. Exactly 1,409 registered voters participated in the survey, 1,164 of which self-identified as a likely voter.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with new information from the afternoon news broadcast.