A recent Badger Poll shows only a minority of Wisconsin citizens think the state is better off under Gov. Jim Doyle than previous heads of the state.
According to the poll, 17 percent of those surveyed agreed the state of Wisconsin is in better shape with Doyle’s leadership. Sixty-one percent said the state is pretty much in the same shape since he took office, and 18 percent said Wisconsin is in worse condition.
“[Doyle is] doing OK, but he’s hardly doing great,” said University of Wisconsin political science professor Charles Franklin. “Doyle is probably in better shape now than he was a year ago.”
According to Donald Ferree, the project director of Badger Poll, this poll provides more information on how people feel rather than just a choice between approval and disapproval, which are pretty broad categories.
“[Doyle] clearly hasn’t made a clear impression on the state the way Tommy Thompson did,” Ferree said. “Doyle does not have that high of a profile.”
A pool of 503 individuals was surveyed and given the choice of excellent, good, fair and poor. Unknown was also an option.
“[Five-hundred] individuals is not particularly small or large and is reasonably adequate to get public opinion,” Franklin said. “The margin of expected error is plus or minus 4 percent, which is reasonably good.”
When you compare one question on one poll to another poll, you are inevitably going to end up with substantial differences, according to Franklin.
Other polls have shown Doyle, a Democrat, having higher ratings, Franklin said, adding he could not explain why there is so much variation — “it’s not obvious.”
For example, at the same time period of the first Badger Poll of Doyle’s office, there was a 65 percent approval rating in the St. Norbert College Poll, and only a 41 percent approval rating in the Badger Poll.
Doyle spokesperson Melanie Fonder said the Badger Poll shows most Wisconsin residents think taxes should not be raised and that the governor is on the right track.
“In terms of the poll itself, the way the wording is, only 10 percent give him a poor rating, so [those] people should understand that he dealt with a $3.2 billion deficit and balanced the budget without raising taxes,” Fonder said.
Students and faculty at UW disagree on whether Doyle has performed well while in office.
Professor emeritus Norlin Benevenga, a longtime researcher and educator at UW, does not approve of Doyle and believes the state was better off before Doyle primarily because of his lack of interest in the UW System.
“How does the $750 million for stem-cell research money fit into undergraduate teaching?” Benevenga asked. “[Doyle’s] support of only stem-cell research supports patent aspects and not education — compromising the teaching component of both undergraduates and graduates.”
Doyle announced his proposal for $750 million for biotechnology and stem-cell research in his State of the State address last Wednesday. Although Doyle had planned to mention he would spend more money on UW and financial aid than on the corrections budget for the first time in 10 years, he did not keep this in his final version of the speech because the “numbers weren’t in,” according to Fonder.
Other Wisconsin citizens approve of Doyle and recognize his achievements over the past couple of years, despite some disagreements.
“I would give him a good approval rating overall,” Liz Sauer, a UW junior, said. “He could have been better in some ways, like approving marriage licenses for same-sex couples.”
