Poll finds Barnes leading in Senate race and judge finds Gableman 'accomplished nothing'

Marquette poll shows Mandela Barnes with 7-point lead over U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson; Gov. Tony Evers in close race with GOP's Tim Michels

• In the Senate race, Barnes was at 51% while Johnson, who is running for a third term, was at 44%. The race for governor was closer, with Evers leading Michels, 45% to 43%, well within the poll's margin of error. Independent Joan Beglinger was at 7%.

• "It's clear that the two non-incumbent candidates (Barnes and Michels) still have a lot of voters that don't have impressions about them, so the campaign has every opportunity to make a big difference there," poll director Charles Franklin said.

• Former President Donald Trump was viewed favorably by 38% and unfavorably by 57%. Among Republicans, 77% held a favorable view of Trump but just 59% said they would like him to run again in 2024. President Joe Biden received 40% job approval against 55% disapproval.

'Accomplished nothing': Judge admonishes Michael Gableman's 2020 election review

• For many months, former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman's taxpayer-funded review of the 2020 presidential election that has not produced any evidence of substantive voter fraud "accomplished nothing," according to a Dane County judge. Gableman didn't keep weekly progress reports as required by the Wisconsin State Assembly. He conducted no witness interviews. And he gathered "no measurable data" over at least a four-month span in 2021, the judge found. "Instead, it gave its employees code names like ‘coms’ or ‘3,’ apparently for the sole purpose of emailing back and forth about news articles and drafts of speeches," Dane County Circuit Judge Frank Remington wrote in an opinion released Wednesday.

• In the ruling, Remington admonished the Office of Special Counsel's five out-of-state attorneys, including prominent conservative attorney James Bopp, for their "baseless" claims against him and revoked their ability to represent the Assembly's office in the case. "Its lawyers’ arguments are wholly without merit and, together, their disobedience for the rule of law is contemptuous," Remington wrote of the attorneys. "If this case were not on appeal," he added, "I could sanction OSC and each of its seven lawyers for their specious legal arguments."

• The decisions from Remington follow a tumultuous couple weeks in Wisconsin's review of the 2020 presidential election that has cost state taxpayers more than $1 million. Last Friday, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos fired Gableman — a week after former President Donald Trump announced Gableman endorsed Vos' primary opponent, Adam Steen, during a rally in Waukesha. Days after the endorsement, Vos narrowly won the primary by just 260 votes. Vos' decision to fire Gableman came more than a year after he hired the former Supreme Court justice to probe the election, which itself came after urging from Trump to launch such an effort.

Did someone share this newsletter with you? Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

The Fun Stuff

WEEKEND: 7 things to do in Milwaukee this weekend, including Irish Fest and the Bloody Mary Festival.

DELAFIELD: A new Bartolotta restaurant is opening at the former Seven Seas location in Delafield.

The Games

BREWERS: Another tight one against the Dodgers but the Brewers drop this one, 2-1.

BUCKS: A Christmas Day game vs. the Boston Celtics and a star-powered opening night matchup highlight the Bucks' 2022-23 schedule

Today's Weather

A little warmer: Sunny and a high of 82.

Not yet a Journal Sentinel subscriber? Please consider signing up at jsonline.com/deal.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Poll finds Barnes leading in Senate race