Poll: Hong favorite to become Wisconsin Democrats' nominee for governor

(The Center Square) - State Rep. Francesca Hong remains the Democratic favorite to be the candidate for Wisconsin governor with a new poll showing she leads former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes 27%-18%.

The Marquette Law School Poll was conducted before Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez dropped out of the race and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley reentered the race. Rodriguez' campaign finance issues led to the firing of her campaign manager. Crowley immediately got an endorsement from Gov. Tony Evers.

For Republicans, Congressman Tom Tiffany led Andy Manske 67%-2% with 30% undecided.

The poll interviewed 838 registered voters in Wisconsin between July 8-16 with a margin of error of +/-4.5 percentage points. The poll included 695 likely voters, with a margin of error of +/-4.9 percentage points.

The primary will be held on Aug. 11.

Early absentee voting has already begun with Democratic Party leaders asking the Wisconsin Election Commission to allow those who have already voted to spoil their ballots and vote again.

Polling showed that most of the comparison races in a general election fell within the poll's margin of error – a statistical tie. Barnes led Tiffany 44%-40% from all those polled and 47%-42% among likely voters.

It showed the opposite for Hong, Joel Brennan and state Sen. Kelda Roys. Tiffany led Hong 43%-40% among all polled and was even 44%-44% with 11% undecided among likely voters. Tiffany led Brennan 44%-43% and Roys 44%-42% among likely voters, with each a larger Tiffany advantage for all polled.

“The exit of Crowley and of Rodriguez, and the subsequent reentry of Crowley, leaves a lot of uncertainty in a race to which many voters had been paying relatively little attention, as the large undecided rate shows,” the poll release said.

Marquette Law intends to release one final poll before the primary on July 29.

Among Democratic voters, Hong held 26% support with Barnes at 15%, Rodriguez at 11%, 2% for Brennan and 1% for Roys. Overall, 45% of Democratic voters say they are undecided.

When looking at the second choice of those who supported Rodriguez, Hong was at 27%, Barnes at 18%, Brennan at 5% and Roys at 2%.

The poll also asked what party they favored in the upcoming state legislature elections with 46% of registered voters saying they support Democrats, 42% supporting Republicans and 12% undecided.