Public Policy Polling for Daily Kos (7/15-17, likely voters, no trendlines):
Dave Hansen (D-inc): 62
David Vanderleest (R): 34
Undecided: 4
(MoE: ±2.7%)
If PPP's poll over the weekend is accurate, Democratic recall target Dave Hansen is set to blow out his Republican opponent, David Vanderleest. As you likely know, in response to Dem recall efforts, Republicans filed petitions against three sitting Democratic state senators: Hansen, Jim Holperin, and Bob Wirch. The GOP is facing primaries in the Holperin and Wirch races, and was going to in the Hansen race as well. But their preferred candidate, state Rep. John Nygren, made an impressive botch of things and failed to file a sufficient number of signatures (only 400 were necessary) in order to get on the ballot.
That left Republicans with just Vanderleest, which means a straight up D-vs.-R race tomorrow, July 19, rather than in August. (That's when the Holperin and Wirch general elections will take place. The GOP will conduct primaries in those contests tomorrow.) And what a piece of work Vanderleest is. He has a long, ugly, and well-documented history of domestic abuse, but my favorite example of his utter unfitness might be this headline, courtesy TPM:
Wis. GOP Recall Candidate: ‘I Don’t Smoke Rocks, And That’s The Truth’
So you can probably understand why Vanderleest has a stunningly awful 23-63 favorable score. Hansen's job approvals, meanwhile, are a strong 59-38. There isn't a whole lot more to say about this contest, except for the fact it looks extremely likely that Dems are about to take one race off the table entirely. That will hopefully give us some good momentum as we head into the Aug. 9 recalls targeting Republicans state Senators, and that would be good news for Democrats.
