GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Is Wisconsin heading in the wrong direction? A new Marquette University Law School poll shows that a majority of people think so.
When the poll last asked the question in late March of 2020, 61-percent of respondents felt the state was going in the right direction. That was right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
But poll director Charles Franklin tells the WTAQ Morning News with Matt and Earl that things have changed a bit since then. Numbers slid into the 50-percent range over the course of 2020, as the 60-percent range is ‘unusually high’. But Franklin says it continued to trend down.
“Quite negative at the moment, just 38-percent say we’re heading in the right direction. 51-percent say we’re on the wrong track,” Franklin said. “Whether you start from 60-percent or you start from 50-percent, to come down to 38-percent saying ‘right direction’ is pretty bad.”
That question had a follow-up: Is government working as intended?
“In Wisconsin, 32-percent say ‘working as intended,’ and 60-percent say it’s broken. The only thing that makes that look good is, in Washington, 10-percent working as intended versus 84-percent say broken,” Franklin said. “Those are all pretty pessimistic views on how we’re feeling about our government these days.”
However, when it comes to how certain administrations have handled the pandemic, there is some optimism.
“Both the governor and the president get their highest ratings of the questions we asked,” Franklin said. “For Governor Evers, it’s 54-percent approval and 39-percent disapproval. For President Biden, it’s 54-percent approve, and 42-percent disapprove.”
You can see more data and results from the poll by clicking here.
