The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer.
A new poll of the Democratic primary in the race for governor in Wisconsin was released today by State Navigate, with support from UpNorthNews and Main Street Action.
Here are the headline results, showing State Rep. Francesca Hong of Madison with a huge lead.
UpNorthNews first reported on the results of the poll, and you can find Pat Kreitlow’s full story here.
You can find State Navigate’s breakdown — which includes extensive graphics, deep-dive crosstabs, and just a wealth of information — here.
Chaz Nuttycombe is the executive director of State Navigate, and if you are a longtime subscriber here at The Recombobulation Area, you are already familiar with his work. He does some of the best polling you will find of state legislatures around the country, including in Wisconsin, where I have used his analysis as a core piece of the mammoth Wisconsin State Legislature I write every election cycle.
You know, these:
Nuttycombe’s work was previously under the name “CNalysis”, but he’s now running State Navigate, which has extensive data on elections up and down the ballot in Wisconsin. Check out their Wisconsin forecast here.
Among the many takeaways, beyond Hong’s huge lead, is just how much data centers have emerged as a significant issue in this race.
Nuttycombe also writes in his breakdown that, “The re-entry of David Crowley into the race has almost certainly crowned Francesca Hong as the Democratic nominee.”
Following that re-entry, the Milwaukee County Executive moved into a virtual tie in second with former lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes, who also has the most second-place votes in the race.
But, bottom line, as Nuttycombe said: “I think this primary is done.”
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Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He worked with Civic Media from 2024 to 2026. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
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