Thomas Tiffany

MADISON - Republican candidate for governor Tom Tiffany leads the Democratic primary field's frontrunner Francesca Hong in a new statewide survey.

Tiffany, who is virtually unopposed in his primary, comes out ahead of Hong in the latest Marquette University Law School poll with 43% and Hong receiving 40% of support among registered voters.

When surveying likely voters, the race ties with both receiving 44%.

Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who is Democratic voters' second-favorite candidate, leads Tiffany with both sets of voters in the new survey released July 22.

Democrats Kelda Roys and Joel Brennan both trailed Tiffany in the poll's head-to-head matchups. Democrat David Crowley had not rejoined the race during when the poll was conducted.

The new poll is the first glimpse at what a general election matchup might look like. But large swaths of voters polled also said they were undecided at this point.

Among Democratic primary voters, the poll also showed 45% had not yet chosen a candidate.

The poll comes just days after the primary field imploded when Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez dropped out after revealing her campaign was actually broke at the same time it was projecting momentum and had received Crowley's endorsement based on that alleged strength.

Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive, got back into the race in a stunning week of chaos.

The poll gives the public a limited view of the true electoral landscape as Marquette University Law School pollsters were in the field July 8-16, or as Crowley left the field and Rodriguez's campaign imploded but concluded their work before Rodriguez left the race and Crowley got back in. Crowley was not included in the poll's field questions.

Evers cabinet officials Joel Brennan received 5% support from Democratic primary voters and state Sen. Kelda Roys received 2% without Rodriguez in the race, according to the survey.

Marquette poll director Charles Franklin said pollsters were going back into the field and will release a new poll on the Democratic field on July 29.

Molly Beck can be reached at [email protected].