Businessman Ron Johnson, endorsed at last weekend’s state Republican Convention, is now running virtually even against incumbent Democrat Russ Feingold in Wisconsin’s race for the U.S. Senate.
A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Wisconsin shows Feingold with 46% support to Johnson’s 44%. Three percent (3%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) remain undecided.
As he has in surveys since the beginning of the year, Feingold continues to fall just short of 50% regardless of which Republican he’s matched against. Incumbents who earn less than 50% of the vote at this stage of a campaign are considered potentially vulnerable. Feingold was reelected to a third term in 2004 with 56% of the vote.
This is the first survey to include Johnson, the latest entrant in Wisconsin’s topsy-turvy GOP Senate field. Former Governor Tommy Thompson froze the field for months with speculation that he would run, and Rasmussen Reports surveys consistently showed him running even or better against Feingold.
Then in April Thompson announced he wasn’t running, and Richard Leinenkugel, the state’s Commerce secretary, jumped in. But Feingold outdistanced Leinenkugel and two longtime candidates in the race, real estate entrepreneur Terrence Wall and businessman Dave Westlake, in a survey last month.
Johnson has entered the contest since then and won the party endorsement on the first ballot of the convention, after Leinenkugel in a surprise move threw his support to the newcomer. State Republicans will pick their nominee in a September 14 primary, but Johnson for now is widely expected to win. - Rasmussen Reports
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