08/01/2002 Archived Entry: "WI Gov: George gone, who benefits?"

State Sen. Gary George (D) was removed 7-1 from the ballot. So, from Doyle/Barrett/Falk/George we move to Doyle/Barrett/Falk. This clearly benefits Barrett. Clearly Falk and Doyle are in grief over this, because George's removal is their loss and Barrett's gain. With George gone, Barrett no longer has hometown competition for Milwaukee, while Falk and Doyle both have to battle it out from the Dane County area.

The latest N-P poll --The Badger poll, conducted 6/8-17/02 by the University of Wisconsin for the Madison Capital Times-- shows a lot of undecided voters. McCallum showed a 30% re-elect number, compared with 43% for someone else.

In head-to-head match-ups: Barrett and McCallum were tied at 24% each, with 51% undecided; Doyle led McCallum 25-24% with 49% undecided; McCallum led Falk 21-17% with 61% undecided.

In 3rd Party findings from the poll: 11% stated there is a serious chance that they will vote for Libertarian Ed Thompson; 5% stated they may vote for Green Jim Young; and 7% stated they may vote for either 3rd Party candidate.

Wispolitics has a Gov site up, 2002 Race For Governor, to follow the race as it develops, if it turns out that Barrett had anything to do with this, he's toast. Reading through what John Savage, the lone dissent vote had to say, it certainly looks like this is back-room politics, but then again, he's an appointee of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, so he could just be attempting to inject racism and division within the WI Democratic Party. George being removed from the ballot does benefit Barrett, but the GOP is making it's case too.