Gov. Jim Doyle's approval rating has dropped to 29 percent, according to a recent poll from North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling.
Fifty-eight percent of Democrats and 5 percent of Republicans said they approve of Doyle.
In June, a PPP survey showed Doyle had a 34 percent approval rating.
""There's no doubt Democrats will be better off with a newer face as their candidate for governor next year than Jim Doyle,"" PPP President Dean Debnam said in a statement.
The poll also found that in a possible matchup between U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and former Gov. Tommy Thompson, Feingold leads Thompson outside the margin of error.
Feingold had the support of 88 percent of Democratic voters, while 82 percent of Republican voters supported Thompson. The poll surveyed 767 Wisconsin voters.
The poll revealed Thompson has lost support since his last term as governor. Thirty-eight percent of voters said they viewed him favorably, and 45 percent said they viewed him unfavorably.
Debnam said despite Democrats' worries about holding on to Senate seats, Democrats could be in a better position to keep those seats than they believe.
""A lot of Democrats were scared yet another of their seats would go on the vulnerable list when Tommy Thompson said he was interested in running for the Senate last week … But Thompson's approval rating is not what it used to be, and it looks like Russ Feingold is in a solid position,"" Debnam said in a statement.
Despite President Barrack Obama's decline in popularity in Wisconsin to 47 percent approval, the poll showed 45 percent of those polled approve of how Feingold is doing and 37 percent disapprove of his job performance.
