Tom Barrett

Over at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s website, Christian Schneider notices something funky about that new PPP poll:

Milwaukee, Wisc.
Shortly after 5:30 p.m. Sunday, a flashy two-car motorcade pulled up in front of the Destiny Youth Plaza on the northwest side of Milwaukee. A crowd gathered around the first car to greet the Reverend Jesse Jackson, visiting Milwaukee to speak on behalf of Wisconsin workers and to rally voters to unseat Governor Scott Walker in the recall election here Tuesday. If anyone was bothered by the fact that Jackson arrived to speak on behalf of the working class in a Mercedes Benz S550 (starting price of some $100,000) and that his escort vehicle was a Cadillac Escalade ESV (starting at about $75,000), nobody showed it.

Barack Obama seems determined to avoid Wisconsin.

Milwaukee
In the final televised debate before the June 5 Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election, Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett called Governor Scott Walker a "rock star to the far right" and "Pontius Pilate" who used a "dead baby" in a TV ad for political gain.

Maryland governor Martin O’Malley is lending last minute support today to Democratic Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett in Wisconsin, days before the June 5^th gubernatorial recall election. O’Malley is chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, so trying to get Barrett elected is (at least part of) his job. But will he be of any help?

Milwaukee

Wisconsin Rapids, Wisc.

In the Wisconsin gubernatorial recall race, Republicans and Democrats continue to spar over the jobs numbers under Governor Scott Walker's administration. Republicans have been touting the fact that the unemployment rate has declined from 7.7 percent to 6.8 percent since Governor Scott Walker took office. But Democrats have countered by pointing to a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report showing that the state lost 29,000 non-farm jobs during the past year--making Wisconsin dead last in that category nationwide.

An interesting thing happened in the Wisconsin recall primary yesterday: Governor Scott Walker received more votes than Tom Barrett and Kathleen Falk combined, the two leading Democrats fighting to challeng him on June 5. Walker won the votes of 626,538 Wisconsinites, despite the fact that he had only token opposition. The two leading Democrats together had 619,049 votes.

In February, Public Policy Polling found Wisconsin governor Scott Walker trailing Milwaukee's Democratic mayor Tom Barrett by 3 points (46 percent to 49 percent). But a new PPP poll conducted for the liberal website Daily Kos shows that Walker has retaken the lead:

Madison, Wisc.
During a Democratic gubernatorial primary debate on Wednesday night, the two leading Democrats vying for a chance to take on Governor Scott Walker in the June 5 recall election strongly disagreed over their abilities to undo Walker's budget reforms if Walker is defeated.

Madison, Wisc.