With the Dane County Executive primary election less than a week away, state. Rep. Joe Parisi, D-Madison, leads a poll he commissioned, while Dane County Board Chairman Scott McDonell is ahead in campaign fundraising.
Parisi released a poll conducted by Forward Strategies that puts him in the lead with 28 percent of the likely vote, with a 5.2 percent margin of error.
However, the candidate with the next highest standing in the poll is not McDonell, who was the first to enter the race and is often seen as a frontrunner along with Parisi, but conservative candidate County Board Supervisor Eileen Bruskewitz with 18 percent.
McDonell also trailed Joe Wineke by 13 to 15 percent, and found himself seven points ahead of Zach Brandon.
A fifth of those polled were undecided about who they would vote for in the primary. Additionally, the vast majority of the likely voters were over the age of 50, with only 1 percent between 18-24.
Even though Parisi's poll shows McDonell toward the bottom, he is doing the best in terms of fundraising. According to numbers from the Dane County Clerk's Office, McDonell raised $52,000 in the second half of 2010 and another $32,000 in January.
Bruskewitz reported over $45,000 raised between 2010 and January 2011, while Parisi raised over $40,000 between the first two periods.
However, the biggest financial jump was for former City Councilman Zach Brandon, who started with about $2,000 for 2010, and then said in a press release he raised $56,000 in January.
