Crowley has slight edge over Tiffany in first new poll since Tuesday’s primary
The Badger Battleground poll was unveiled Sunday on ‘UPFRONT’
A new Badger Battleground poll shows David Crowley with a narrow early lead over Tom Tiffany, 48% to 44%.
The poll, which was exclusively released Sunday on “UPFRONT” was taken last Wednesday and Thursday among 500 likely voters and commissioned by Platform Communications. It’s one of the first snapshots in the race for governor after Crowley beat Francesca Hong in the Democratic primary last week.
“What it tells us is it’s a statistical tie,” Keith Gilkes said, a Republican strategist and executive chairman of Platform Communications. “At the end of the day, yes, David Crowley is up by four points over Tom Tiffany. That’s well within the margin of error and very typical for this type of race. We’re in a purple state, so I wouldn’t expect anything else, and the campaign’s just starting.”
Tanya Bjork, a Democratic strategist and advisor on the poll, said the results in part could represent a post-primary boost for Crowley.
“But this poll has some kind of not great news for Tom Tiffany,” Bjork said. “I mean, technically, he should probably be leading right now. He spent all summer long running really great positive ads, and his ads were really good, trying to introduce himself to voters. And that doesn’t seem to have broken through, even though he was sort of unanswered all summer long.”
Among independent voters, the poll found Crowley leading Tiffany 42% to 30%.
“We have to get out there and get the message out about what Tom’s policies are and what his positions are and make sure people really truly understand the contrast,” Gilkes said. “What you see in the poll is kind of a reflection of what the general political environment is. We’re kind of starting at zero at the moment in terms of the prior in the general as opposed to the primary, and so moving forward the key part of this is going to be the independents. And look, everyone knows what our state comes down to — presidential fall elections, gubernatorial elections — this is plus or minus 20, 30,000 votes one way or another.”
In the poll, Crowley is viewed favorably by 43% of voters; Tiffany’s favorability sits at 38%. Trump’s favorability is at 41%.