The Wisconsin Senate race had, until a few weeks ago, been shaping up to be a cakewalk for Russ Feingold. However, a poll from University of Wisconsin surfaced showing Feingold narrowly trailing former Gov. and former HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson (43-39), and Thompson then offered a cryptic non-denial of his interest, saying he was considering runs for governor, senator, and mayor of Elroy.
Well, Thompson may want to start thinking more about the position in Elroy (although it would mean going up against the fearsome Sharon Knuth machine): PPP's poll of the Wisconsin race conflicts pretty thoroughly with the UW poll. Feingold leads Thompson outside the margin of error, and Feingold also has very large leads over the two minor Republicans already in the field. Feingold still provokes some ambivalence, with a 45/37 approval, but that beats Thompson's 38/45 favorable (and Westlake's 2/9!). Thompson may fare better in the open governor's race, and I would expect that we'll see gubernatorial numbers from the same PPP sample fairly soon.
