If Russ Feingold wants to return to the Senate, Public Policy Polling shows he is a strong front runner, beating four Republican contenders by double digits:
51% of voters in the state have a favorable opinion of Feingold to 38% with an unfavorable one. He’s on positive ground with independents at 50/37 and almost twice as many Republicans (15%) like him as Democrats (8%) dislike him. These numbers are a pretty clear indication that his loss last year had less to do with him than it did with the national political climate and poor Democratic turnout in the state. Things are moving back toward the Democrats nationally and that’s particularly the case in Wisconsin where Scott Walker has quickly become quite unpopular.
In hypothetical contests Feingold leads Tommy Thompson 52-42, Mark Neumann 53-41, JB Van Hollen 53-38, and Jeff Fitzgerald 54-39. He wins independents by at least 9 points in all of the match ups and takes more than 90% of the Democratic vote while keeping the Republican candidates in the 80s within their own parties.
