A new poll out on Tuesday brings good news to former Sen. Russ Feingold and to Rep. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.

In the race to win the seat of retiring senator Herb Kohl, either one of them would do very well.

Feingold would do best of all, as he would beat all comers, according to Public Policy Polling.

Feingold would crush former governor Tommy Thompson 52-to-42 and would handily beat other possible Republican candidates.

Thompson had very high unfavorable ratings: 42 percent, matching his favorables, whereas Feingold had a 51:38 ratio of favorables to unfavorables.

“Russ Feingold’s going to start out as a solid favorite if he wants to go back to the

Senate,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “His loss last year had

less to do with him than the national political climate and because of Scott Walker’s

unpopularity things have shifted back toward the Democrats more quickly in Wisconsin

than most other places.”

And if he doesn’t want to run for Senate again, these results could embolden Feingold to challenge Scott Walker for governor in a possible recall election next spring, as many progressives in the Badger State are hoping he will do.

Public Policy Polling surveyed 16,36 Wisconsin voters last week. The margin of error for the survey was +/-2.4%.

Representative Tammy Baldwin also showed well in the poll.

She ran essentially neck and neck with Thompson, losing to him 44-to-45, which was better than all the other possible Democratic candidates who were polled, except Feingold.

And she would beat anyone but Thompson.

She led former Rep. Mark Neumann 46-to-41.

She led Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen 46-to-39.

And she led state assembly speaker Jeff Fitzgerald 48-to-37.

Other possible Democratic candidates, such as Rep. Ron Kind or Rep. Steve Kagen, did not fare as well as Baldwin against these Republican opponents.

This should reassure Baldwin and her supporters, since the conventional wisdom has been that she’d have a hard time winning statewide because she is so liberal and because she is the first out-lesbian to be elected to the House.

Note: She’s been underestimated before.

If you liked this story by Matthew Rothschild, the editor of The Progressive magazine, check out his story "Who Benefits from the Gingrich Implosion?"

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