The final Marquette University Law School poll out Wednesday will not have any reaction following last week’s gubernatorial debate.
Poll director Charles Franklin says the poll wrapped up questioning just before the debate took place Wednesday.
“Some of the things are obviously not only vote choice but favorability,” Franklin said on WISN 12’s “UpFront,” which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics. “Whether you agree or disagree with the candidates’ issue positions, but also ticking off some specific issues about who would do a better job of handling school funding, handling taxes, handling data centers, so some more specific things that voters are judging the candidates by.”
Both Democratic strategist Joe Zepecki and Republican Bill McCoshen agree there wasn’t a specific moment in last week’s debate that could hang over either David Crowley or Tom Tiffany’s campaign in the final full week on the campaign trail.
“I think Tom Tiffany did very, very well, and I think there are some problems with the Crowley campaign both on style and substance,” McCoshen told “UpFront.” “I think he was over-programmed. He wanted to say ‘congressman,’ he wanted to say ‘billionaire,’ he wanted to say ‘Trump’ as many times as possible. I think David Crowley’s greatest asset is his likability, and that didn’t come through, at least in my opinion, in the debate.”
Zepecki said reminding voters that Tiffany is a congressman who votes “100% of the time with Donald Trump and is being supported by billionaires” was important information to relay to voters.
“So I agree with Bill that there was not a breakout moment for either gentleman,” Zepecki said. “I thought they both had good moments. I thought they both had moments where they maybe would like a do-over on the answer. I think the most important takeaway is nothing happened on that stage that is changing the trajectory of the race, which since the Aug. 11 primary, every single public poll released and every private poll I’ve heard of has had David Crowley in the lead.”
Both Crowley and Tiffany launched bus tours this past weekend headed into the final full week of campaigning.
“Find your voters, and turn them out 100%,” Zepecki said. “Especially with Brewers fever rocking the state, I’m not sure there’s a lot of persuasion time left.”
McCoshen added it’s “all about turnout. And make no mistake, risk mitigation for the final days.”
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