WPR’s Joe Schultz: “The economy is a top issue for Wisconsin voters, but most view it negatively.”:
Stephen Brown, who moved to Oshkosh from Rockford, Illinois, said he doesn’t think the economy is as bad as Republicans say, but it’s also not as good as Democrats say.
Although Wisconsin’s economy is doing well according to most traditional macro indicators, there is a partisan divide in how well Wisconsin’s economy is doing.
sauce: Marquette Law School Poll, April 2024.
Interestingly, the Wisconsin and La Follette polls (Summer-Fall 2023) show that partisan rifts do not exist as long as the economy is an issue.
sauce: Wisconsin/La Follette.
Differences in presentation may be due to timing or wording (or both). In my view, the latter is likely the cause of the difference. Market poll questions are likely to elicit perceptions about the direction of the economy. In contrast, the Wisconsin poll questions are more likely to capture individual respondents’ perceptions of the economic situation facing them.
As pointed out, similar contrasts can be seen in national opinion polls. krugman.The former can have a significant impact on coverage, as perceptions of the economy differ from the situation faced by individual survey respondents (see Harris and Sojourner, 2024).
https://econbrowser.com/archives/2024/05/wisconsin-macro-developments-and-sentiment
