Baldwin Leads Thompson in Wisconsin Senate Race

Democrat Tammy Baldwin Leads Republican Tommy Thompson 48% to 45% in the race for the U.S. Senate seat in Wisconsin, a new poll from Public Policy Polling finds. Baldwin runs 2 points ahead of the national ticket President Obama leads Mitt Romney by just 1 point in the state in the same survey, 49-48. This is a reversal of the findings PPP showed in mid-August, when we found Thompson leading Baldwin 49-44. These poll results find one of the first leads for Baldwin over Thompson found by any polling service since July. Baldwin holds a 9-point lead with women (51-42), offsetting her smaller deficit among men (45-49). Democrats favor Baldwin over Thompson 84-11, Republicans pick Thompson over Baldwin 78-9, and independents are split in favor of Baldwin 42-41. Voters are split on Baldwins favorability ratings 44% of voters view her favorably while 45% view her unfavorably. Democrats almost universally like her (84-11) and Republicans almost universally dislike her (9-78) and independents are split almost down the middle (42-41.) But voters like Thompson a lot less his favorability ratings are a net negative by double digits. 53% of voters have an unfavorable opinion of Thompson, while just 40% view him favorably. Democrats view him almost uniformly unfavorably (10-86) and independents strongly dislike him (37-54). Where Thompson runs into the most trouble is with his favorability ratings among his own Party just 69% of Republicans view him favorably while 23% view him unfavorably a sign that wounds havent healed much since the divisive Republican primary for the Senate nomination. PPP surveyed 959 likely Wisconsin voters from September 12th to 13th. The margin of error for the survey is +/-3.16%. PPP surveys are conducted through automated telephone interviews. The poll was paid for by Democracy for America.

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