I wonder if semi-retired pro Bill Christopherson will continue to claim Rasmussen Reports is a Republican outfit after reading the mid-July Rasmussen update (Who am I kidding? Rasmussen could have Barrett up 20 points against both opponents and he’d still bash Rasmussen for being a Republican outfit.)
This round is quite a bit more favorable to Tom Barrett, who is looking to serve Jim Doyle’s third term. Barrett’s favorables improved from 42% favorable/44% unfavorable/-1 “Passion” Index (the very favorable percentage minus the very unfavorable percentage, and the favorability analogue to Rasmussen’s Approval Index) to 49% favorable/42% unfavorable/+1 “Passion” Index, and Doyle’s job approval rating improved from 35% approve/64% disapprove/-30 Approval Index to 40% approve/59% disapprove/-26 Approval Index.
The big loser was Mark Neumann, whose negative campaign is backfiring specactularly. His favorables slipped from 49% favorable/37% unfavorable/-3 “Passion” Index to 47% favorable/38% unfavorable/-5 “Passion” Index. That caused the head-to-head matchup against Barrett to flip from a 47%-39% Neumann advantage to a 45%-43% Barrett advantage, which represents both Neumann’s lowest support total and his first disadvantage in the campaign (the two were tied in late-April).
Neumann’s main target, Scott Walker, was relatively unscathed by the attacks the past few weeks. While his own 8-point lead against Barrett (49%-41%) was halved to 48%-44%, most of the movement was Barrett increasing his percentage from the pool of those who hadn’t made up their mind. Walker’s favorables were a mixed bag; while the favorable/unfavorable split improved from 51% favorable/35% unfavorable to 55% favorable/32% unfavorable, the “Passion” Index slipped from +14 to +11.
