2012 recall election
After the contentious collective bargaining dispute, Walker's disapproval ratings varied between 50 and 51%, while his approval ratings varied between 47 and 49% in 2011. In a survey of 768 Wisconsin voters conducted between February 24–27, 2011, during the 2011 Wisconsin budget protests, a poll by Public Policy Polling found that 52% of respondents said they would vote for Barrett if the election had been held then, while 45% said they would vote for Walker.
Barrett ended months of speculation by officially announcing on March 30, 2012, that he would enter the race for governor. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Wisconsin Education Association Council, which already supported another Democrat who had announced, had met with Barrett in late December 2011 and tried unsuccessfully to keep him from entering the race. On May 8, Barrett won the Democratic primary for the recall election.
A Marquette Law School Poll released on May 30 (mirroring other polling outlets) had Barrett trailing Walker 52% to 45% among likely voters. The results represent a six-point increase for Walker over Barrett since Marquette's earlier poll in late April. The poll's margin of error for likely voters was plus or minus 4.1 percentage points. Odysseas, a contributor to the progressive blog Daily Kos, had questioned if the Marquette University Law school poll oversampled "right wingers." For example, a poll by Public Policy Polling conducted May 11–13 gave Republicans a 7% edge over Democrats in terms of likely voters, unlikely given Wisconsin voter registration patterns. However, in retrospect the Marquette poll accurately reflected the Wisconsin electorate's vote. However, the same poll showed President Obama holding a lead over Mitt Romney 51–43. On May 21, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel endorsed Scott Walker over Barrett arguing "[there is] no reason to remove Walker from office." The Journal-Sentinel had previously endorsed Walker over Barrett in 2010. Walker defeated Barrett in the June 5 recall election by garnering 53.2%-46.3%, a similar margin to the 2010 election. Walker thus became the first governor in US history to survive a recall election.
