Two recent polls of the Senate race (including one by the historically Republican-leaning Rasmussen) are reflecting other recent numbers showing Ron Johnsons' putative lead in the Senate race shrinking back towards the margin of error. Internal polls from both the Feingold campaign and DSCC show the race a dead heat.
Meanwhile, DPW is asking reporters to take note of both the glaring defects in some of the public polling, and the conspicuous silence that has settled over Johnson campaign HQ in recent days:
It's time to cut through the noise of national pollsters. Both Tom Barrett and Russ Feingold have released their own polls showing that momentum is on our side. If Republicans Ron Johnson and Scott Walker really think they're ahead, they should have no hesitation releasing their own polls to back up their claims rather than on relying on polls that leave out whole sections of the electorate, don't call residents with cell phones, or rely on automated calls.
This would be an academic argument if not for the fact that polls routinely set the media narrative for a campaign, and in the face of an unprecedented onslaught of negative advertising from a blank slate multi-millionaire candidate, the true story on the ground can easily get drowned out.
And that truth is this: Russ Feingold has built an extensive, fired up, grassroots army of supporters now working in 50 field offices across the state already hard at work turning out voters -- in a race that both campaigns know is a dead heat that will come down to turnout, turnout, turnout.
And now he has found a message that both campaigns know is working:
"This trade issue has become a game changer," Feingold said. "People are finding out what has happened, we have lost these jobs. Here's a guy who supported the policies that sent the jobs overseas. What good is it to have a guy who says he knows how to create jobs when he's perfectly happy sending them overseas?"
Meanwhile, Ron Johnson has... no plan, no GOTV strategy, nothing except for millions more of his personal wealth to buy more ads that annoy Wisconsin voters in a cynical attempt to try to buy a Senate seat.