Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker held the lead in hypothetical primaries for the 2010 gubernatorial election in a poll conducted by UW-Madison and the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.
According to the poll results, Barrett was favored over Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, receiving 38 percent of the vote to Lawton's 16 percent in a hypothetical Democratic matchup. Walker, who received 39 percent of the vote, was preferred over former U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann, R-Wis., who received 14 percent of the vote in a Republican matchup.
The poll found many Wisconsinites had not yet decided who they will vote for. Additionally, a large percentage of those surveyed were unfamiliar with the candidates, with 36 percent of respondents saying they had never heard of Walker and 33 percent saying they had never heard of Barrett.
Political party affiliation was also polled. Thirty-three percent identified as Democrats and 26 percent identified as Republicans. Twenty-nine percent said they consider themselves independents.
The poll showed 58 percent of Wisconsinites are concerned that important issues in Wisconsin are headed down the wrong track. George Lightbourn, president of WPRI, said the people of Wisconsin are not confident in Wisconsin's governing powers.
""Only 29 percent think they can trust state government to do the right thing most of the time. Forty-six percent think that, in the last year, state government has made the economic situation worse,"" he said in a statement.
Thirty-two percent of those surveyed said protecting jobs and improving the economy should currently be the state Legislature's top priority.
The poll was conducted of 700 randomly selected Wisconsin adults and has a overall margin of error of 3.8 percent.
