In what is already shaping up to be a heated national race, President Barack Obama leads all Republican candidates currently competing in the Republican National Convention primary, according to two polls released over the past two days that focus on Wisconsin’s possible role as a battleground state.

The first poll, released by Marquette Law School Wednesday, found Obama leading former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum 51 percent to 40 percent, and leading former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney 53 percent to 38 percent.

Another poll was conducted by Purple Strategies, a polling company formed from the merger of a Republican polling company and a Democratic polling company.  Dubbed the “Purple Poll,” it surveyed 12 states considered to be swing states in the election, showing Obama leading Santorum by 2 percent and Romney by 4 percent.

According to the Marquette poll, Santorum leads among those who said they would vote in the Republican primary in Wisconsin on April 3 with 34 percent followed by Mitt Romney with 18 percent and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul with 17 percent.

University of Wisconsin political science professor Donald Downs said while the winner of a presidential primary is usually decided by April 3, this year’s contest could still be up in the air when the primary makes its way to Wisconsin, potentially making Wisconsin a key state in winning the RNC primary.

With Super Tuesday coming up, Downs said there are still a lot of delegates left for the taking, under a “non-winner take all” system.

“Most primaries in the past have been winner take all, especially on the Republican side,” Downs said. “McCain won less than 50 percent of the vote in many states in ’08 but he got all the delegates because of plurality. This primary is different.”

Downs said Romney is still the favorite to win the primary because of ads and large amounts of funding from SuperPACS. However, he said Santorum is still a significant threat because of his solid social conservative base and the general lack of enthusiasm for the GOP field of candidates.

In the Purple Poll, which focuses on 12 swing states that the Purple Strategies group believes will decide the 2012 presidential election, Wisconsin is grouped together with Iowa and Minnesota in the “Heartland” category of the poll.

Doug Usher, a managing partner of research for Purple Strategies, said the biggest finding of February’s poll was Santorum’s outperformance of Romney when compared to Obama.

“This is the first time we’ve tested Santorum,” Usher said. “As of January he didn’t seem to be competitive. But we’ve tested four other challengers including Jeb Bush, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain against Obama. This is the first time that anyone has done better than Romney when compared to the president.”

Usher said Obama has been polling higher and higher in Wisconsin, which could be the result of a number of factors.

“The economic recovery in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin has been performing relatively well in the country, plus in general Democrats seem to do a bit better in those states,” Usher said.

When asked about the criteria for determining the 12 swing states, Usher said nine of the states have swung back and forth in their political support since 1998, and the other three, including Wisconsin, have been decided by three points or fewer in recent presidential elections.