Roads remain concern in final poll before white-knuckle governor’s election

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A Marquette University Law School poll released on Wednesday shows Gov. Scott Walker and his Democratic opponent, Tony Evers, remain locked in a dead heat with 47 percent support each just six days before the election.

“It’s hard to conclude anything than a true toss-up race,” said Marquette pollster Charles Franklin. “This race could clearly tip any direction based on our data.”

The poll also found voters are still concerned about Wisconsin’s much-maligned roadways, but are skeptical of proposals to raise taxes to pay for improvements.

The poll is also the first to suggest that supporters of the state’s deal to bring the Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn to Wisconsin outnumber detractors.

The Marquette poll surveyed 1,400 registered voters between Oct. 24 and Sunday, using their responses to produce results with a 3 percent margin of error. The pollsters also spoke to 1,154 so-called likely voters, producing results with a 3.2 percent margin of error.

Its results were largely consistent with those from the immediately preceding Marquette poll, released in early October. That survey showed Walker had a one-point advantage over Evers, a lead that was well within the poll’s margin of error.

The latest poll suggests that roads remain one of voters’ top priorities. Respondents ranked the often-criticized condition of Wisconsin’s roads as their fourth biggest concern, behind jobs and the economy, schools and health care.

Evers and Walker have consistently attacked each other over Wisconsin roads. Evers has regularly blamed Walker for what he deems the deteriorating state of Wisconsin’s transportation system, although he has yet to release a detailed plan of his own. Walker, meanwhile, has sought to stoke fear that Evers could raise the gas tax by as much as a dollar, a possibility Evers has dismissed as being ridiculous. Outside groups have also taken out a bevy of transportation-related ads in markets throughout the state.

Even with roads being a priority, respondents to both the latest poll and the previous survey have been largely unwilling to say they would support raising taxes to pay for repairs. The poll found 59 percent of the respondents were opposed to increasing the state’s gas tax or vehicle-registration fees, the two biggest sources of transportation money in Wisconsin. Only 36 percent of the respondents said they favored such increases. Among those who chose roads as the state’s most pressing issue, 51 percent favored tax increases to pay for needed work, whereas 48 percent were opposed to higher taxes.

The poll also marks the first time that respondents said the state’s $4.5 billion deal to bring Foxconn Technology Group to Wisconsin would produce as many benefits as it’s costing. Forty-one percent of the respondents said Foxconn project would be worth what the state’s spending on it, whereas 40 percent said it wouldn’t.

That’s a swing from previous polls, which suggested that skepticism of the Foxconn deal is deeply ingrained. Polls in early October and September separately found that 48 percent of voters thought the state was giving up too much in return for Foxconn’s plans to spend as much as $10 billion on its new factory in Mount Pleasant.

Outside the governor’s race, the Marquette poll showed Baldwin continues to have a lead on her Republican opponent, state Sen. Leah Vukmir. The latest poll showed Baldwin with an 11-point lead. Follow @natebeck9