Pretty much every recent poll of voters in Wisconsin has suggested that the three-term Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold has a steep uphill climb to stay in the Senate.

For weeks, Republican businessman Ron Johnson has kept a single digit lead that seemed to be stable if not growing. If anyone seemed to have momentum, he did.

So it was something of a surprise to see the results of the St. Norbert College/Wisconsin Public Radio's new survey which indicates the candidates are in a statistical dead heat.

 

The poll of 442 likely voters had Johnson at 49 percent of registered voters and Feingold at 47 percent, with a margin of error of five percentage points.

So Johnson could actually be ahead by more than the poll suggests; perhaps Feingold doesn't have any forward momentum. We'll need to see if future polls corroborate this one.

Tags: Wisconsin