After much debate back and forth it will be interesting to see how Wisconsin votes tomorrow.
Walker's lead in Wisconsin recall election tightens in new poll
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker maintains a narrow lead in his recall election, but his standing has diminished in recent weeks, according to a new poll released on the eve of the election.Walker leads Democratic challenger Tom Barrett, the mayor of Milwaukee, by just 3 percentage points in a new survey. Turnout will be the deciding factor in this close race.
After raising expectations in Wisconsin, Walker, 44, is under heavy pressure to deliver. The numbers have been uncooperative. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which churns out reams of national and state employment data every month, has shown Wisconsin losing 33,900 jobs in 2011. The numbers, which aren’t adjusted for season variation, were among the worst of any other state. The state also ranked 42nd out of 50 states in economic health in 2011, according to the Bloomberg Economic Evaluation of States.
At the same time federal figures showed jobs leaving, Wisconsin’s unemployment rate was falling. In April, it was 6.7 percent and has been dropping steadily since January 2010, when it last peaked at 9.2 percent. Walker has touted that as evidence of a strengthening economy. The monthly job-loss data, though, provided ammunition for Democrats to argue that Walker should be bounced from office. With the recall election bearing down on him, Walker drew on a different federal measurement -- a quarterly accounting -- on May 16 and last year’s job loss was transformed into a gain of about 23,000.
“That’s very dangerous,” said Charles Ballard, an economist at Michigan State University in East Lansing. “If you let each governor come up with his or her own numbers, I bet almost every state would have faster job growth. As soon as it becomes a political football, the numbers become meaningless.”
