Barnes, Johnson separated by 1 point in Wisconsin Senate battle: survey

Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes (D) is leading Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) by just 1 point in the race for Wisconsin’s Senate seat, according to a new Spectrum News-Siena College poll released on Tuesday.

Forty-nine percent of likely Wisconsin voters in the survey said they would support Barnes, while 48 percent said they would back Johnson. The 1-point lead is within the poll’s margin of error.

Support for the two candidates fell largely along partisan lines, with 92 percent of Democrats supporting Barnes and 93 percent of Republicans supporting Johnson. However, Johnson has a slight edge among independents, with 48 percent of independents polled supporting the sitting senator compared to the 43 percent backing the lieutenant governor.

Barnes was viewed somewhat more favorably among likely Wisconsin voters than Johnson, according to the poll. Forty-one percent said they viewed Barnes favorably, while 37 percent said the same of Johnson.

The tight race — one of several that will likely determine control of the Senate — is largely considered a toss-up. The Spectrum News poll’s results are the exact opposite of a Marquette University Law School poll from last week that showed Johnson leading Barnes by 1 point, 49 percent to 48 percent.

The Spectrum News poll was conducted by the Siena College Research Institute on Sept. 14-15 with 651 likely Wisconsin voters and had a 4.5 percentage-point margin of error.