Government department Professor Arnold Shober is in the news, handicapping the fall elections for the Appleton Post-Crescent. Here’s a portion of the transcript in response to a question on whether Wisconsin Democrats are going to be taken to the woodshed this November:
The answer to that question is really how well Russ Feingold does. He’s the top race in the state. We think about governor, but Feingold gets a lot more attention. If he has trouble — and a series of recent polls suggest that he really does — then it will very bad. If he can’t carry reliable Democrats into the polling booth, nobody can.
Polling out last week suggested that, in northeast Wisconsin, Ron Johnson is up 60-40. That means Steve Kagen (in the 8th Congressional District) is certainly out. Penny Bernard Schaber (in the 57th Assembly District) is most certainly out. Tom Nelson’s seat (in the 5th Assembly District) will probably flip, and on and on and on, because that’s a big margin.
Certainly, everyone voting for Russ Feingold is going to be voting for a Democrat. He’s a maverick, but he’s definitely on the left. So if he does poorly, Democrats across Wisconsin are going to be in big trouble. If he can hold it even, it may not be so bad.
Emphasis is mine (Prof. Shober typically doesn’t speak in bold font), and included so I could use the pun in the title.
You can see the latest polling results outside of Professor Shober’s door right here on Briggs 2nd.