A poll released Tuesday showed Gov. Jim Doyle and potential contender U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Green Bay, in a virtual dead heat??-stirring talk of a highly contested campaign.
The Zogby \Battleground States Poll,"" the first independent polling data of the year, showed Doyle and Green to be 1.3 percent apart, within the poll's margin of error. The poll showed Doyle ahead of Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker by 2.4 percent.
According to Mark Graul, Green's campaign manager, the results of the poll are indicative of the fact that Gov. Doyle's policies are not in the best interest of Wisconsin residents.
""Gov. Doyle, in his three years in office, has raised taxes, raised government spending beyond the levels that most tax payers can afford,"" Graul said. ""He's raised tuition for students at the University of Wisconsin schools by over 50 percent. He's making Wisconsin too expensive of a place to live and we need to roll back the price gouging he's doing to Wisconsin taxpayers.""
The issue of taxes is also the central campaign point for County Executive Scott Walker. Bruce Pfaff, Walker's campaign manager, emphasized a campaign theme of ""lower taxes and higher standards.""
""Gov. Doyle has pulled a sham on the people of Wisconsin by telling them that there's a tax freeze,"" Pfaff said. ""There is no tax freeze on his budget and taxes are going up.""
He also pointed out that Walker is well suited for the job based on prior experience in budget politics.
""Scott Walker is an executive that writes budgets, that vetoes bills and that manages the second largest budget in Wisconsin,"" Pfaff said. ""When we win and take over for Doyle's bankrupt administration, Scott Walker will know what to do.""
Brian Schatman, chairman of the College Democrats said he disagreed on the issue of taxes. He said because tuition and budget cuts are controlled by the Republican-led state legislature, ""any tax cuts that have come to the University in the last three years, that's been entirely by the legislature.""
Schatman also criticized the Green and Walker campaigns, saying Republicans place too much of an emphasis on contributions to various religious organizations, advocating an unpopular conceal and carry gun law and focusing on lowering property taxes while the university system faces budget cuts.
""[Republicans] aren't doing anything to help the state as a whole,"" he said.
