Gov. Scott Walker's been one of the luckier freshmen Republican state leaders. While Florida's Rick Scott, Ohio's John Kasich, and Michigan's Rick Snyder have all watched their approval ratings plummet to below or close to 30 percent over the last five months, Walker managed to hang out at or slightly above 43 percent since his inauguration. That seemed to be Walker's unwavering base with only the previously undecideds leaving the middle and starting to disapprove.

A new poll released today by the University of Wisconsin Survey Center suggests that base may be showing signs of stress. For the first time since entering the Governor's mansion Walker has dropped to a 37 percent approval rating. He is now one percentage point below former Gov. Jim Doyle's lowest approval rating. It's important to note that one poll does not make a trend and without any other polls being released this week the Badger Poll stands out as an anomaly in comparison to previous polls.

There are a number of interesting numbers in the poll, which you can read here, but one that stands out is the approval rating for Wisconsin's recall system. Seventy-eight percent of the Wisconsinites polled said having the recall option in the state Constitution is "a good thing" with 50 percent saying the current recalls make them "feel better about Wisconsin politics."

The Democrats up for recall receive more support in the poll with 59 percent wanting the incumbents to stay in office. The Republican incumbents have a support level of 49 percent.

Somewhat disheartening is how jaded Wisconsinites are concerning the political process. A whopping 65 percent believe the Wisconsin government is run only to serve a few big interests. That's up by 11 percent since the question was asked in June of 2010.

This survey has a margin of error of +/- 4.2 percent.

Jesse Russell

Co-Editor

Jesse was born and raised in Connecticut, began blogging in 1997, and moved to Madison in 2003. In 2005, he co-founded dane101 along with Kristian Knutson and Shane Wealti. In addition to helping nearly a dozen contributors run this website he's helped launch various events in the city including What's Your Damage?!, the MadPubQuiz of Awesomeness, the Fire Ball Masquerade, Dane101's Freakin' Halloweekend, and more.