Feingold has edge in Senate Race.

Russ Feingold's chances of winning back his senate seat have improved since the last Marquette University poll:

11-3-16: A Public Policy Polling survey of Wisconsin voters finds that Russ Feingold leads the Senate race in the state 49/44. (margin of error 3.3%)

Just before that and overlapping the Marquette poll, a Real Clear Politics Poll revealed to a Fox News audience...

Feingold did defend his vote against the Patriot Act, but failed to call out big government Republicans and Johnson as the party of intrusive government - big brother prying into our private information and personal lives. Feingold's position of limited government took a beating by big government Johnson this time around because he loves the idea of surveilling law abiding Americans.

And if we took one big issue like common sense background checks for gun purchases, something Feingold did not emphasize in his closing ads, the race might not be so close. According to PP Polling:

By a 24 point margin voters say (Johnson’s) opposition to background checks legislation makes them less likely to vote for him, and by a 20 point margin voters say his opposition to prohibiting known terror suspects from buying guns makes them less likely to vote for him. 

84% of voters in the state support requiring background checks on all gun sales, to only 11% who are opposed to them.
76% of voters support prohibiting individuals convicted of committing a hate crime from buying a gun, to just 13% opposed to that.
74% support prohibiting anyone convicted of stalking or domestic abuse from buying a gun, to only 15% opposed to that.
80- 92% of Democrats in support, 74-84% of independents, and even 65-76% of Republicans.

Recycled Republican candidate Kapanke longs for days before Affordable Care Act, when fewer Wisconsinites had Insurance.

At a recent debate, former state Sen. Dan Kapanke, R-La Crosse, tossed out more misinformation that conservative voters would naturally think was right. WPR:

Kapanke favors ending the federal ACA. Even before the recent announcement ACA premiums were going up, he didn't believe the program worked. 

"We need to go back to where Wisconsin was prior to Obamacare where we did have 90-plus percent of our people covered with some kind of health care insurance."  

That was deceptive and wrong. 

A Kaiser Family Foundation report suggests 93 percent of the state's residents were insured through either employer-based insurance or government programs in 2015, up from 91 percent in 2013 before the ACA began. 

Let's Get It Straight: I'm tired of hearing Republicans brag about how Wisconsin was a leader in insurance coverage. The reason we covered so many Wisconsinites? We opened BadgerCare up to those making up to 200% of the federal poverty level, which Scott Walker and his band of plundering Republican pirates threw overboard immediately:

Scott Walker canceled Medicaid coverage for 77,000 people who have incomes above the poverty line. It (once) allowed people making up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level to be covered by BadgerCare ... the governor ... roll(ed) BadgerCare eligibility back to 100 percent of the poverty line.

And that's why back in 2013, Wisconsin's insured fell to just 91%. Now it's at 93%, thanks to enrollment in the ACA's Marketplace. But those stuck between 100%-200% are still having problems getting health care on their tight budgets: 

Oddly, this is the Republican mantra now, repeated below by Dumb Ron Johnson. Russ Feingold of course had to explain why that was a bad idea to the drooling GOP mob hoping to lose their own health care someday:

St. Norbert College Poll: Clinton 47%, Trump 39%, Feingold 52%, Johnson 40%.

The Wisconsin Survey/St. Norbert College Poll, Oct. 13-16 2016, came and went oddly with almost no coverage. What's that all about? Did the great looking numbers for Clinton and Feingold throw cold water on the fabricated media "horse race" spin?

Here are the secret results no one wants you see apparently:

1. If the presidential election were held today, for whom would you vote: Republican 
Hillary Clinton........................................47%Donald Trump......................................39%  

2. Donald Trump Voters Totally Committed 66%, Somewhat 27%, Might Change Your Mind 7%. 

3. Hillary Clinton Voters Totally Committed 72%, Somewhat 24%, Might Change Your Mind 4%.

4. Regardless of how you intend to vote, which candidate, Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, has a better temperament to be president? Hillary Clinton 63%, Donald Trump 26%

5. Which candidate, Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, do you think cares more about people like you? 
Hillary Clinton 49%.Donald Trump 35%, 

6. In the race for the Wisconsin Senate seat, if the election were held today, for whom would you vote?: Democrat Russ Feingold 52%, Republican Ron Johnson 40%.

Digging deeper, here are a few important charts:

Dumb Ron Johnson can't dodge Tomah VA blame.

I continue to hear veterans bash Democratic candidates for problems at the Tomah VA. Funny thing, not one Republican representative or senator ever got blamed or mentioned. Didn't anyone think to get a hold of these strong defenders of veteran services?

It wasn't until long after Dumb Ron Johnson's name started to come up. Strange too, since Johnson was the sitting senator when this story hit the fan, not Feingold by about 4 years.

To straighten this mess out, finally, WISC's Jessica Arp blows the whole thing up in Johnson's face:

The memo in question was sent by a union official who represents Tomah workers, Lin Ellinghuysen. A news story last October highlights two memos, in 2008 and 2009, detailing issues with the doctor and narcotics. Both were marked by Ellinghuysen as "hand-delivered" to the offices of Feingold and other Democrats.

In October she said she told someone to deliver the memos for her, but had "no proof they were ever delivered." Then in January she said she made the delivery note "in error," and that she had a "foggy memory" about any meetings with Feingold about issues at Tomah.

Feingold and the other Democrats listed in the report say they have no record of actually getting the memo. While the memo detailed "unexpected deaths" at Tomah, including suicides, the only death officially considered linked to this issue was in 2014. That's five years after the original memo and four years after Feingold was voted out of office.

Basically, Dumb Ron Johnson is focusing in on...nothing at all. Sure beats debating the issues.

So what about Johnson? Oh, he's got a list of excuses in the tank tea party voters would love, no matter how irresponsible and how many veterans were hurt:

Ouch?

Johnson's office says it got complaints from Honl, and they were sent to a Senate subcommittee. It turns out, though, that the paperwork was only sent to another subcommittee aide who never told Chairwoman Sen. Claire McCaskill or Johnson. Johnson aides have said he was not personally aware of any issues at the VA until January of 2015.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) suggested his office might have responded faster to complaints but his staff was busy during the lame duck session "doing job interviews and stuff." Johnson made the comments in a radio interview on the Jerry Bader Show.

"You have to understand what happens here, in between Congresses. There’s a high level of churn within offices. Actually, two of these people on these email chains voluntarily left for other opportunities, other offices. And so, you've got to understand the reality of the situation," Johnson said.

Well oh yes, that's the reality of the situation. But Johnson is quick to point a finger at Tammy Baldwin, because she's a Democrat who hates veterans.

Feingold pushes Republicans to get off their ass and fund Foreign Intelligence & Information Commission to monitor the globe for terrorism.

Journal Sentinel blogger Christian Schneider apparently doesn’t read his own newspaper. He missed a recent article about Russ Feingold's call to increase security. And that just made his attack piece ridiculous and irrelevant.   

Schneider’s article, “Feingold's bad bet on intelligence” is all wrong, and based on right wing rhetoric already circling around the talk radio drain:

Now a candidate to regain the Senate seat he lost in 2010, Feingold was back this week calling for better funding and more focus on intelligence gathering in the wake of last Friday's terrorist attack on Paris. It makes sense that Feingold would want to remake his image by pretending now that he's been for strengthening U.S. intelligence all along. It wouldn't be the first time he's tried to rewrite the past…”

Maybe Schneider skipped this part of Feingold's story:

In the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold is calling for better funding and … the revival of a dormant oversight commission. The Foreign Intelligence and Information Commission Act was put forward by Feingold, a Democrat, and passed into law in 2010 but has not been funded, nor has the commission been put in place. The commission was meant to ensure that the nation is looking across the globe for terrorist havens and threats and doing so by every means, whether covert spies or foreign diplomats.

Hell, Feingold even worked with Republican Rep. Chuck Hagel:

Feingold worked on the commission proposal with then Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, who later served as secretary of defense under Obama. In 2008, Hagel said of an earlier version of the proposal that it would ensure that the U.S. isn't solely focused on the "threat of the day."

Schneider is another conservative who's willing to leave out huge parts of stories and facts to make what he's saying seem logical, in a down-the-rabbit-hole kinda way. 

Oh, and here's another little nugget of truth:

Feingold blamed the rise of the Islamic State group on the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, which he opposed then as a U.S. senator. Whatever actions the U.S. takes next, the nation needs better intelligence, he said.

Separately Monday, Feingold's 2016 opponent, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), called for invading territory held by the terrorist group the Islamic State.

Dumb Ron Johnson must have an extra $2 trillion sitting around for a new war in the Middle East.

Figures; Dumb Ron Johnson's Super PAC fear mongers, Photoshops Obama standing next to president of Iran.

All in with Chris Hayes feature this amazing gaffe, not to mention lie, from what appears to be a desperate Dumb Ron Johnson fund raiser at his super PAC. The Progressive's Ruth Conniff gives the nation a wonderfully detailed, almost comical description of our national embarrassment:

A Super PAC supporting Sen. Ron Johnson, R - Wi., aired an ad featuring a photoshopped image of President Obama shaking hands with the Iranian president, which has never happened.

Check out the before and after photos wonderfully displayed by Buzzfeed. Obama looks strangely similar in the two different photos, right. But Johnson's PAC, believe it or not, continued to claim the picture was real, despite changing it! You can't make this stuff up. According to PolitiFact:

Editor's note: After this item was posted, Restoration PAC spokesman Dan Curry called PolitiFact Wisconsin to say the group had decided the day before -- after the Buzzfeed article -- to replace the image with side-by-side photos of the two men. He said the new ad began running the morning of July 24, 2015. (However, the old version continued to appear on YouTube and as a link from the group's website that afternoon). 

And it's down the rabbit hole....

In a statement, Curry criticized BuzzFeed as "not able to provide any proof that the photo was fake" and noted the photo "is in circulation widely on the internet, posted on dozens of websites. There also are no articles directly claiming the image is fake. However, out of an abundance of caution, we are replacing the image with side-by-side Obama and Rouhani photos that makes exactly the same point."

Walker's pettiness over Feingold's announced run for Senate, from supposedly California...Wrong!

Republicans love to make things up, but this really is ridiculous.

For whatever odd reason, the worst they could come up with was to say Russ Feingold announced his candidacy for senate from California. To WISGOP, that was the right amount of red meat-right wing hooey to get Dumb Ron Johnson supporters energized. Only they made it up, as PolitiFact discovered:

The National Republican Senatorial Committee said that Russ Feingold announced his campaign for Senate while in California. But tweets and other evidence shows he was in Wisconsin at the time.

We rate the claim Pants on Fire.

But that wasn't the end of it:

Republicans would continue to emphasize Feingold’s out of state job and have assigned a "tracker" to follow Feingold when he is in California. On May 21, 2015, they posted and tweeted videos of Feingold walking to his class.

If this mindless video is any indication, Republicans can't dig up anything on Feingold, except to say he's like Scott Walker and Paul Ryan, a career politician? Forget about his work as a college professor and envoy. I love the cameraman's questions:



Even Scott Walker, presidential candidate (unannouced), thought it was important to mention Feingold's announcement from California. What other bullshit will he swallow hook-line-and-sinker when he's deciding to take our country to war? This guy is so not ready. His comment is around :18 sec in. Like Walker said in the clip below, he's "fully engaged?"

Dumb Ron Johnson describes Scott Walker…sorry, I meant Russ Feingold as a “career politician.” “He’s addicted to it,” and “simply run(s) for office to be somebody with a big title. We don’t need that.”

This isn't the first time Dumb Ron Johnson has bashed someone as a career politician, never grasping the idea that he could very well be describing Scott Walker. Seriously, see for yourself:

Johnson said it wasn't surprising Feingold had gotten into the race 18 months before the

election.

"Russ Feingold is a career politician. He's addicted to it. He just can't stand being away from it, and so he's just got to announce."

"Russ Feingold ...what did he do? He built government. He built it larger and more intrusive. What we do not need are career politicians that simply run for office to be somebody with a big title. We don't need that."

Thank you Ron, we'll all keep that in mind about Scott Walker. Oddly, the description fails to come close to Feingold's time as senator, and away from office as a professor at Stanford University in California.

Dumb Ron Johnson unknowingly criticized Rep. Paul Ryan back in February, bashing Feingold's welcome support of the stimulus package. Ryan didn't just vote for a stimulus once, he spent taxpayer money like a drunken sailor:  

(Ryan) had voted for the Bush stimulus, along with the Bush tax cuts, the Bush wars, the Bush security spending binge, the Bush prescription drug benefit, the Bush highway bill that included the Bridge to Nowhere, and the Bush bank bailout. Fiscal conservatism!

So Johnson's shot at Feingold sounds hollow, dumb even. And Johnson is back to his old tricks of passing absolute nonsense along as fact. That's why I gave him his name:

“With Russ Feingold plotting his return to power, it’s worth remembering that when he voted for the failed $830 billion stimulus...”

Forward Progress corrected Johnson's recollection of the past:

Amazing isn't it? Here we are, coming off the best economic year this country has experienced since the Clinton presidency, and Republicans continue to try to claim that the 2009 stimulus package was a failure. Not to mention that the stimulus didn't just help create jobs, it also aided in saving millions of jobs that might have been lost.

Speaking of nonsense, WISGOP has reared its ugly head with coordinated support for Johnson:

Feingold for Senate? Governor?

I hate it when people start talking about Russ Feingold running for governor, because I sooooo want to see that happen. Yet by all indications, he won't. He's stuck on foreign policy for some reason. Hey, a hobby is one thing, but getting this state back to normal again has so much more going for it. And it's the only position not affected by gerrymandering. TPM:

Fifty-three percent of Wisconsin voters said they have a favorable opinion of Feingold, according to the latest survey from Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling, while 37 percent said they have an unfavorable opinion of the former three-term senator.

The poll indicated that Feingold could get the last laugh on the Republican who ousted him in the 2010 midterms. In a hypothetical 2016 Senate matchup, 52 percent said they would vote for Feingold over Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who picked up 42 percent support.

Moreover, Feingold fared better than any Democrat tested in hypothetical matchups against Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), who will be up for re-election next year. Feingold edged Walker in the poll 49 percent to 47 percent. Walker topped every other Democrat tested in the poll. Feingold has not given an indication yet if he will challenge Walker in 2014.

Feingold Blasts Ryan in at Conventions.

Russ Feingold is in Charlotte, N.C. telling the truth about Paul Ryan.

jsonline: Former Sen. Russ Feingold told delegates: "You have a special responsibility as the Wisconsin delegation to set the record straight on Paul Ryan, and to show this idea of him being tough on spending is an absolute myth."

WISC Channel3000 had this report:

Feingold lambasted Ryan's record in the House and ripped his speech to the GOP convention last week, which Feingold said was full of "fabrications and deceptions."

Feingold's blistering comments are a bit more noteworthy because of his friendly relationship with Ryan over the years ... Feingold singled out Ryan's address which drew criticism in the media ... Feingold charged that Ryan "delivered the least honest of all the Republican convention speeches." In his speech, Ryan seemed to blame Obama for GM's failure to keep the plant running ... The Romney-Ryan campaign has argued that Obama "promised" to either keep the plant open or help it relaunch.

Feingold also blasted Ryan for his support of trade agreements that Feingold blames for the loss of industrial jobs. And Feingold accused Ryan of supporting policies under Bush - including wars and tax cuts - that fueled deficits. In an interview later, Feingold said of his relationship with Ryan, "I assume we'll continue to be polite and collegial to each other. You know our fathers had violent disagreements about politics . . . they were across the hall from each other . . . but the civility was clear and the civility will continue. But when somebody is on the national ticket and intentionally says things that you know (aren't) right, you got to call him on it."

Feingold argued that Ryan's credibility was hurt by the speech. "He had a really good reputation going into that night, and I think it was hurt significantly," said Feingold.

Feingold wasn't the only one leveling off on Ryan:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi attacked Ryan's plan to "voucherize" Medicare, calling it a "transparent trick to end Medicare," Politico reported.

Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison urged Wisconsin Democrats to help "get rid of Paul Ryan."
"What if he lost his House seat too? That'd be nice," said Ellison (Ryan is simultaneously on the ballot for Congress and vice president).

Lee Saunders, head of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, told delegates they can help stop Ryan. "You have seen Paul Ryan in action, and you will be our spokespersons all over the country to tell everyone who Paul Ryan really is." Saunders said.

Saunders showed a bit more passion, using the old "Hollywood" empty chair trick:

Russ Feingold on Walker: "He has a very very bad relationship with the truth."

I’m still sitting here, in stunned amazement, at Walker’s response to his “divide and conquer” comment in the video below:

Walker: “I think the fact that they’ve sent it to (the media) before I’ve even seen it says it’s a political issue.”

Yeah, so? But get this; that was in response to Fox6's question about a letter sent to the House Oversight Committee by three congressmen, asking that Walker clarify the different statements he made to a billionaire supporter, and then three months later to the committee. Walker immediately accused the media of getting the story first, which it did not. Issa turned down the request.

Intrepid Fox6 reporter Mike Lowe has never had problem asking Scott Walker the tough, uncomfortable question.

Russ Feingold came up with the best of comment of the day: 

Feingold: "The governor has a severe problem with the truth. Whether it be the way he's handling this investigation, whether it be the jobs numbers that Tom talked about, the whole routine he had about how that somehow this attack on the working people of the state was a budgetary matter, that belonged in the budget. He has a very very bad relationship with the truth...overall."

Classic.

I don't think Scott Walker ever considered, or was ready for, a "debate" with Russ Feingold. 

...enter Russ Feingold

The guy that would have been the gubernatorial choice, Russ Feingold, hit the campaign trail today for Tom Barrett. Heck, he was just a few blocks away and I didn't know it. WKOW:

Russ Feingold is making it clear to recall volunteers that he wants the same thing they do. "To vote Scott Walker, out of the Governorship," Feingold said to applause at an early voting rally Tuesday. "This is a people's movement, and if people are able to get out and vote early, then they can go and help other people who might find it more challenging to get out to vote," Feingold told a group of reporters.

Feingold on the upcoming Recall and Occupy Wall Street!

Feingold has every right to feel some relief when he sees how people have finally risen up against the corporate elites takeover. From Upfront with Mike Gousha:

Feingold makes Walkerville Appearance with Speech!

Below is the speech Russ Feingold made at the Walkerville protest Sunday, courtesy of WTDY's Sly in the Morning.

Here's the story: 

WSJ: Republicans "went right for the jugular" when they chose this state as the place to demonize public employees, destroy the right to vote and abuse the budget process that will continue this week, former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold told supporters Sunday evening near the Capitol Square.
"Why are we in a place called Walkerville today? Because we will not stop until we win."


During the speech, chants of "run, Russ, run," could be heard, but Feingold didn't mention his own political future. He is currently teaching at Marquette University, writing a book and leading a political action group.

"I got the feeling he'd like to run for governor," Bob Bergman, a machine operator from Oshkosh, said after the speech.

Russ Feingold on The Colbert Report...

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Progressives United - Russ Feingold
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

Ryan Loses to Kohl and Feingold for Senate.

According to The Hill: 

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is often talked about as a possible Senate 2012 candidate. A new poll by Democrat-leaning Public Policy Polling shows Ryan would lag behind incumbent Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) if he runs, although he is the strongest Republican in the state. 

Ryan would lag behind Kohl by a margin of 49 percent to 42 percent. He also trails former senator Russ Feingold by the same margin. 

The next Republican in the survey, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen trails Kohl by a margin of 52 percent to 37 percent. 

Rachel Maddow Gets Russ Feingold's Take on Walker's Union Busting Agenda, and Ed Schultz Covers the Protest.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Ed Schultz and Joe Madison dissect the anti-labor media coverage at Fox News:





Maddow on Walker protest by teachers at the capital:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Ed Schultz picked up this story first, and recognized its importance long before anyone else did. Ed couldn't be a better spokesman for working Americans. First, the local coverage from WKOW-TV and WISC-TV:





Here's Ed, part 2 with One Wisconsin Now's Scott Ross:






Ed Schultz dissects the fabricated budget emergency set in motion by Walker, in what many might call "disaster capitalism." John Nichols is his guest:

The New York Times did a nice photo slide show on the protest here.http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/02/16/us/WISCONSIN-8.html

Could Feingold get elected again if he ran? Yes. So much for the Republican Mandate.

I came across this December 14th, 2010 article at the Journal Sentinel online:

The highlights: Kohl leads in hypothetical match-ups with Republicans Tommy Thompson, Paul Ryan and J.B. Van Hollen … Kohl’s approval rating is 50%, his disapproval rating 35%.

Russ Feingold, who lost his 2010 re-election bid, also leads the same three Republicans in hypothetical 2012 match-ups. Public Policy Polling apparently included Feingold in its survey to account for a scenario in which Kohl decides against a fifth term and Feingold runs in his place. Kohl is still expected by many Democrats to run again.

Feingold’s approval rating is the same as Kohl’s (50%) but his disapproval rating is higher (43%).

The pollster also notes the seeming oddity of Feingold performing well when he just lost to Republican Ron Johnson:

The pollster's explanation is that this new poll is not a survey of the 2010 mid-term electorate, whose makeup was atypically conservative. It's a survey of a different and broader population of people who have voted at least once in a recent major election, including the high-turnout presidential elections of 2004 and 2008. That would presumably help explain how Feingold could have a 54% approval rating among independents in this new statewide poll after losing (according to exit polls) self-identified independent voters this past fall by 13 points. The numbers can be found here. 

McCain on Feingold, John's one last honorable moment.

Wisconsin State Journal: So it was altogether fitting Tuesday that Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, took to the floor of the U.S. Senate to deliver a touching farewell to outgoing Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold.

"Without intending it as a commentary on his successor, I have to confess I think the Senate will be a much poorer place without Russ Feingold in it," McCain said. "I know that in my next term I will experience fewer occasions of inspiration because of the departure of Russ Feingold, a man whose courage and dedication to the principles that guided his Senate service often inspired me."

In a long, and at times emotional, speech, McCain said Feingold's friendship and wisdom would be "irreplaceable."

"In his time in the Senate, Russ Feingold, every day and in every way, had the courage of his convictions," McCain said. "And though I am quite a few years older than Russ, and have served in this body longer than he has, I confess I have always felt he was my superior in that cardinal virtue."

Related articles

• John McCain Praises Russ Feingold On Senate Floor (huffingtonpost.com)
• Russ Feingold: An example of courage and conviction in the Senate (Sen. John McCain) (thehill.com)
• McCain: Senate 'poorer' without Russ (politico.com)

I’m afraid were headed for a major economic collapse, one person at a time.

When average Americans defend huge tax cuts for the wealthy (remember the rich don’t pay 12.4 percent Soc. Sec. tax on anything above $106,000, like average Americans), don’t want universal health care so they don’t lose everything due to an illness, think people with good pay and benefits from government jobs should get lousy pay and no benefits like in the private sector, demand politicians listen to them and be bipartisan but then gain power promising no compromises, put the same party in power that crashed the economy and blew away 8 million jobs because they promised to create jobs, and are okay with reducing their own retirement programs while fighting for tax cuts for the wealthy…were all lost and it’s going to take a major catastrophe to restore sanity.

Take the upside down thinking by voters in Wisconsin when they voted in Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, who really did bankrupt the county, and Ron Johnson, who really defended offshoring jobs and the business climate in China while shrugging off the lost jobs in his state as “creative destruction.”

Chicago Tribune: Unhappiness with the federal government and the sputtering economy were too much for veteran Sen. Russ Feingold and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Tom Barrett to overcome, an exit poll of Wisconsin voters showed. I worry the economy is getting worse," said Kristina Mann, a 28-year-old hair stylist in Appleton. She said she blamed Democrats and voted a straight Republican ticket. Mann said her business has slowed considerably as clients have told her they and their husbands are losing jobs.

Wisconsin voters mirrored the nation Tuesday, with three in five saying the economy was the most important issue facing the country while only one in five chose health care. Barrett did well with voters who made under $30,000 or lived in a union household, while Walker -- the Milwaukee County executive -- did well with white Protestants and voters making $100,000 to $199,999 a year. About three-fourths of voters who thought an ability to bring about change was the most important quality in a candidate chose Johnson. Nearly half of voters surveyed said they think Congress should repeal the health care overhaul,

Here are more national numbers:

Nearly 9 in 10 called the economy bad and expressed worry over the coming year, and 4 in 10 said their personal finances had grown worse under President Barack Obama. All of those people leaned strongly Republican.

Stephen Skavlem, 45, a Cincinnati Republican, said of the economy "I blame the Democrats in Washington. I feel they got the keys to the castle, they couldn't reach a consensus and didn't get a lot done" ... about 54 percent expressed disapproval of the job he's doing and similar numbers said his policies will harm the country. A majority said the government should more often leave people and businesses alone another group that tilted Republican.

Asked to choose among three issues, about 4 in 10 want Congress to focus on reducing the federal deficit while nearly as many prefer spending to create jobs. Tax cuts finished last. Overall, about 4 in 10 want to continue the tax cuts approved under President George W. Bush, including reductions for people earning at least $250,000 annually. About an equal number want to let the cuts expire for the wealthiest earners ... Close to half want to repeal the health care overhaul Obama enacted this year, while about the same number want to expand it even further or leave it in place.

Related articles

• Wisconsin Electorate Takes a Hard Right (online.wsj.com)
• In Midwest, GOP Capitalizes on Economy (online.wsj.com)
• Johnson topples liberal Sen. Feingold in Wisconsin (seattletimes.nwsource.com)