Two-thirds of voters undecided as candidates for governor, Supreme Court try to stand out

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- A new Marquette Law School poll released Wednesday showed Wisconsin voters are, in a word, undecided about the governor's race later this year, and even the state Supreme Court election less than six weeks away.

The poll, taken over a span of nine days earlier this month, found two-thirds of voters said they still haven't decided with candidate they support in either the Supreme Court race or for governor.

In the Supreme Court race, progressive candidate, Dane County Judge Chris Taylor, is backed by 17% of registered voters. Appeals Court Judge Maria Lazar, who is backed by conservatives, was favored by 12% in the poll. 66% of respondents said they hadn't decided who they'll support.

In the governor's race, there's still plenty to sort out in a crowded Democratic primary field. State Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) has the early edge with 11% of Democratic primary voters saying they support her. Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes was right behind Hong at 10%, and current Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez followed with 6%. 

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley had 3%, followed by former Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan at 2%, former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Missy Hughes at 2% and State Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) at 1%.

65% of voters said they were still undecided.

Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette poll, said even in past mid-term years, more voters tended to have some opinion of the candidates.

However, in February 2018, the vast majority of respondents hadn't formed an opinion of the candidates in a crowded Democratic primary Gov. Tony Evers eventually won.

"This year really is looking like, whether it's the governor's race or the court race, people are not paying as much attention as they have in previous primary years for governor," Franklin said.

On the Republican side, Congressman Tom Tiffany is the lone Republican candidate. However, even then, two-thirds of respondents said they were still undecided about which GOP candidate they wanted at the top of the ticket in that race.

Franklin's theory was voters are paying attention, but they're currently more tuned into national politics than they state or local races.

"It used to be all politics is local," Franklin said. "Now, all politics is national, so maybe people aren't paying as much attention."

Dem candidates try to stand out

With so much work to do to make voters aware, Democratic candidates are trying to claim ownership of various issues.

This week, Rodriguez rolled out a plan to crack down on tech companies. The goal is to keep kids and teens from getting addicted to social media, so Rodriguez has proposed banning apps from having features like automatic video autoplay and endless scrolling when used by minors.

"The big tech really designs these platforms to addict our children, and it harms their mental health," Rodriguez said. "We know that it does, and as longs as kids keep scrolling, they keep making money."

Rodriguez had previously put out a healthcare plan headlined by a proposed to create a state-run health insurance option on the federal marketplace. 

Earlier this month, Roys released her own healthcare platform, KeldaCare. She proposed opening up the state workers' health system and allowing anyone to buy into it.

"The same insurance that I enjoy as a state employee, to allow anybody to buy in- and individual, a small business," Roys said. "Or even a larger manufacturing company that's tired of double-digit premium increases."

At an event in Milwaukee Wednesday, Barnes said he supported a state-run public option on the marketplace and vowed to veto his first state budget if lawmakers don't include a Medicaid expansion.

During his visit to the Sherman Park neighborhood, Barnes sought to highlight the need for investment in grocery stores across the city.

"Access to fresh, healthy food is far too scarce in a city of this size, in any major city," Barnes said. "As I mentioned, in a state that produces as much fresh, healthy food as we do in Wisconsin."

Voters on other issues

Elsewhere in the poll, voters were predominately opposed to data centers. 70% said they believe the costs outweigh the benefits, compared to 29% who said the benefits outweigh the costs.

Franklin noted while there wasn't a partisan gap on data centers in the fall, that has changed. In this poll, data centers were a net -70 with Democrats and a net -52 with independents, but with Republican voters, data centers only had a net -12 response.

When asked about how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was handling immigration law, 56% said they disapprove while 44% said they do approve of ICE's operations.

The partisan gap was again massive on the subject. 87% of Republicans said they approve of how ICE is conducting its work compared to only 3% of Democrats. Among independents, 24% said they approve. 

Asked about immigration officers shooting and killing Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, 36% said they believed the shooting was justified. However, 72% of Republicans said they believed the officers were justified while 22% of independents believed the shooting was warranted.

The issue of immigration was a 60/40 issue, but it depended on how the question was asked. When simply asked if illegal immigrants should be deported, about 60% said yes. However, when asked if illegal immigrants should be deported, even if they have a job and no criminal record, 60% said they opposed deportation.