Wisconsin Gov. Scott McCallum is losing the gubernatorial race before he even has a clear Democratic opponent, according to recently released poll results.
Data from the survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, and commissioned by the conservative Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, showed two of the four Democratic gubernatorial candidates'state Attorney General Jim Doyle and U.S. Rep Tom Barrett, D-Milwaukee'holding small leads over the incumbent.
\What this poll is basically saying is that the problem is there is a deficit of a billion dollars and [Wisconsin] is not happy with the governor to a large degree because it occurred on his watch,"" said Jim Miller, president of WPRI. ""The other part of this is that the Democrats haven't said what they're going to do [about the deficit], and when you have to cut a billion dollars, no one is happy.""
The survey asked 600 Wisconsin residents, among other questions, who they would choose in a head-to-head election between McCallum and the four Democrats vying for the party nomination. Neither the Libertarian or Green Party's candidates were included in the survey, which had a margin of error of 4 percent.
Doyle lead the governor by 6 percentage points, while Barrett had a 3 percent advantage. The two other Democratic primary candidates, State Rep. Gary George, D-Milwaukee and Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, trailed McCallum by 6 and 5 percent, respectively.
""What is likely to be seen in Wisconsin, for the first time in memory, is a very competitive gubernatorial election,"" he said. ""It's just not clear to anybody at this stage who the next governor is going to be.""
The survey results also revealed that all the Democratic primary candidates gained ground on McCallum since a similar survey was completed in Aug. 2001. Add those results to the fact that only 45 percent of the population surveyed believe Wisconsin is ""moving in the right direction"" and McCallum is ripe to be removed from office, according to Thad Nation, spokesperson for Doyle's campaign.
""Any time you see an incumbent under 40 percent with only eight months left in an election, that incumbent is in a lot of trouble,"" he said.
Scot Ross, communications director for Falk's campaign, said the Dane County Executive's focus will remain on the the Democratic primary for now, but added that the poll numbers are reassuring.
""All the Democrats are within the margin of error, they're all really close to each other and it'll be a great race,"" he said.
