Evers, Baldwin post big leads in NBC/Marist College poll

MADISON - Democrats Tony Evers and Tammy Baldwin posted big leads in the races for governor and U.S. Senate in a poll released Thursday by Marist College and NBC News.

The survey was released a day after one from Marquette University Law School that showed Evers, the state schools superintendent, in a tight race for governor and Baldwin with a sizable advantage in her re-election bid for Senate.

In the Marist poll, Evers led GOP Gov. Scott Walker 50 percent to 42 percent, when the ballot is expanded to include the Libertarian and Green Party candidates running for governor.

That’s a major departure from Wednesday’s Marquette poll, which had Evers trailing Walker by 1 point, a tossup.

The Marist poll had Baldwin leading state Sen. Leah Vukmir (R-Brookfield) 54 percent to 40 percent. That was a bigger lead than she had in the Marquette poll, which had her up 53 percent to 43 percent.

The latest poll showed 45 percent of Wisconsin likely voters approving of President Donald Trump’s job performance and 50 percent disapproving. That’s in line with what the Marquette poll showed.

The Marist poll was conducted Sept. 30 to Oct. 3 — during a period the nation’s attention was gripped by testimony from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who accused him of sexually assaulting him when they were both teenagers. The poll was completed before the Senate narrowly confirmed Kavanaugh.

It included 571 likely voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percentage points.