10-3-14 marquette law school poll director goes “between the lines”

The director of the Marquette University law school poll says the latest figures show a developing trend in the governor’s race.  The poll released this week shows incumbent Republican governor Scott Walker up by five points over Democrat Mary Burke…outside the margin of error for the first time since March. Poll director Charles Franklin says negative attacks that Burke plagerized her jobs plan is only part of the story.  Franklin says to attribute Burke’s drop to the plagerism story ignores a recent trend that has been favoring Walker before that story broke.  “If we go back to July Burke had a one point advantage among likely voters and then in August a two point advantage,”  Franklin told AM 11270 WFDL’s Between the Lines program.  “In mid September Walker took a three point advantage and now a five point advantage.  So i think from that longer term perspective the race has been very close all along with two months of very small Burke leads followed by a month of a very small Walker lead and now in this latest one a five point lead.”  Franklin says with about a month to go before the election it looks like voter turnout will be the key. In the attorney general race Franklin says the key findings in the poll is that most voters still don’t know either candidate.  “The striking thing is voters have seemed not to have learned much if anything more about these candidates,”  Franklin said.  “Susan Happ is not recognized by 79 percent of the sample, and for Brad Schimel its 85 percent.”