Via Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, the latest Rasmussen poll has Republican Ron Johnson, fresh off his primary win on Tuesday, up by seven points over Sen. Russ Feingold.
After a decisive win in Tuesday’s Republican Primary, businessman Ron Johnson now holds a seven-point lead over incumbent Democrat Russ Feingold in Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate race.
The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Johnson picking up 51% support, while Feingold earns the vote from 44%. One percent (1%) of voters prefer some other candidate, and four percent (4%) remain undecided.
While some of the movement can be attributed to a post-primary bounce, Captain Ed points out something different about this race:
The difference would be that Feingold had been advertising during the primary campaign, as well as actively fundraising and making major appearances. It’s also the latest in a series of surveys that show Feingold well below the 50% threshold, which had already identified him as being in danger of losing his seat.
Johnson is winning this with the independents. Both candidates hold their own voters in line, but Johnson has a 58/30 advantage among unaffiliated voters.
The other factor coming into play is a genuinely unlikeable incumbent. Back in March, Radical Russ came to Racine Park High School for a “listening” session. My friend, Fred Dooley from Real Debate Wisconsin, attended the session and grabbed some outstanding video. You can see all the clips here. After re-watching them this morning, I was captured by the smarmy condescension and outright hostility of Feingold toward the people he supposedly represents. How dare you question what I do?
Here’s a typical exchange from the day:
First question from Denis Navratil – about the differences in using 6 years of benefit and 10 years of revenues in CBO scoring. Denis points out that if he tried that accounting in his business he would be put into jail.
Senator Feingold just said he will not respond to people shouting out from the crowd, people though he did not answer Denis’ question.
Most who know me know I listen to talk radio and I remember our local guys — Mark Belling in particular — commenting on the Feingold listening sessions and noting that this race just became winnable if the Republicans would just find a candidate, that Feingold was coming off in these sessions as haughty and arrogant and not very likeable (an aside: I know someone who knows Feingold from his days in the State Legislature who confirms he’s not very likeable or personable).
To simply dismiss a legimitate question from a constituent who, if he did the same thing in his business as the government was doing with the health care takeover bill would indeed go to jail, is the height of arrogance.
Radical Russ, you are going to get your comeuppance November 2.
[...] Real Feingold Ads As I pointed out here, my friend Fred Dooley from Real Debate Wisconsin attended the so-called listening session held by [...]
[...] Via Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire, Public Policy Polling, the official pollster for the Kos Kiddie Day Care Center, is coming out with a poll showing Radical Russ trailing Republican challenger Ron Johnson by double digits, more than the Rasmussen Reports poll we discussed here. [...]