According to the latest Marquette Law School poll, the biggest concern on people's minds is health care. Forty-eight percent of registered voters said Wisconsin should withdraw from the federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the Affordable Care Act, while forty-two percent support the lawsuit. The response was along party lines with Democrats saying yes — withdraw from the lawsuit, and Republicans saying no — stay the course, and sue the government.
But less partisan were responses to the question of whether Wisconsin should accept federal funds to expand Medicaid. Poll Director Charles Franklin says, “62 percent would accept the Medicaid expansion. This is a case that might be a little surprising. 43 percent of Republicans would support expanding Medicaid.”
One of the most surprising data points for Franklin is an issue that got a lot of support from both sides of the aisle. The question: who should have the power to draw new political boundaries every 10 years, based on the latest census data? Should it be Democrats? Republicans? Franklin says the answer from the respondents was "neither."
“Redistricting has been a major battle over the last number of years and yet we find 72 percent that would favor a nonpartisan redistricting commission, and that includes 62 Republicans and even more Democrats and independents,” notes Franklin. Currently, a battle over redistricting in Wisconsin remains in the courts. It involves the maps that Republican lawmakers approved in 2011, which gave GOP candidates a clear advantage in elections.
The Marquette Law School poll also asked state residents about issues currently in the national spotlight such as the border wall. Do people favor or oppose building a wall along the border with Mexico? “Well they oppose but not by a huge amount. 44 support - 51 oppose,” answers Franklin.
A majority also oppose the federal government shutdown - a consequence of the standoff between President Trump and Congress about funding for the border wall. Franklin says it was a significant majority with 66 percent opposed.
Also, it's not too early to contemplate the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. The poll asked Wisconsinites about certain rising stars in the party like U.S. senators Cory Booker from New Jersey, Kamala Harris from California and U.S. Senate candidate from Texas, Beto O'Rourke. However, name recognition was an issue for all of these candidates. The majority of respondents said they hadn’t heard enough about these candidates to form an opinion.
The poll was conducted Jan. 16-20, 2019. The sample included 800 registered voters in Wisconsin, interviewed by cell phone or landline, with a margin of error of +/- 3.9 percentage points. You can find more information on poll resultshere.
