(The Center Square) – Despite a high level of campaign spending on the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, many registered voters are not informed enough on the race to offer an opinion, according to a new Marquette Law School Poll.
The poll did not track who voters favored in the April 1 election but instead looked at the awareness of each candidate and the favorability of those candidates in both the Supreme Court race and the race to be the Department of Instruction’s superintendent in charge of K-12 schools.
There were 58% who said they did not have enough information to give an opinion on candidate Susan Crawford while 38% said the same about Brad Schimel. Both candidates are currently circuit court judges but Schimel also used to be the state’s attorney general.
“I’m not going to give you a horse race number today, but I wanted to focus on how a lot of people don’t know a lot about the candidates,” said Charles Franklin, the director of the Marquette University Law School Poll.
The poll asked questions to 864 registered Wisconsin voters between Feb. 19 and 26.
The favorability numbers for Schimel said 32% had an unfavorable opinion while 29% were favorable. For Crawford, 23% of voters were unfavorable and 19% were favorable.
The poll also asked and 41% of those polled said they were enthusiastic about the races and said they would turn out to vote. In 2023, 51% of registered voters showed up in the state Supreme Court election.
Of those who were enthusiastic and certain to vote, 42% are favorable about Schimel with 43% unfavorable. The poll also showed that 33% of those certain to vote were favorable about Crawford with 32% unfavorable.
Republicans said they were 56% favorable about Schimel and 6% unfavorable while Democrats were 60% unfavorable about Schimel and 3% favorable.
Democrats said they were 40% favorable about Crawford with 6% unfavorable and 54% did not have enough information. Republicans were 38% unfavorable about Crawford with 2% favorable and 61% said they did not have enough information.
Respondents identified themselves as 36% Republican, 32% Democrat and 32% independent but when asked which way they lean if it is toward a party then 46% said they were Republican, 42% Democrat and 13% said they were truly independent.
Voters had even less information in the DPI superintendent race with 71% not haven’t enough information on Brittany Kinser with 16% favorable and 13% with an unfavorable opinion. Also 64% of voters did not have enough information on incumbent DPI Superintendent Jill Underly with 20% having an unfavorable opinion and 16% favorable.
