Noteworthy that Public Policy Polling is a democratic leaning pollster, making these numbers for the Romney/Ryan 2012 ticket even more impressive.
PPP's first Wisconsin poll since Mitt Romney announced Paul Ryan as his running mate finds him taking a small lead over Barack Obama in the state, 48-47. That represents a 7 point shift from PPP's last look at the state in early July, which found Obama ahead 50-44.
The biggest change Ryan's selection seems to have brought about is the unification of the GOP. Romney's gone from a 78 point lead with Republicans on our last poll (87-9) to now an 88 point lead with them (93-5). There's also been a tightening with independents. Obama still has a 4 point lead with them at 47-43, but that's down from a 14 point advantage at 53-39 six weeks ago. Democrats are unchanged from the previous poll.
Early July Obama was ahead of Romney in Wisconsin by six percentage points and now he trails by one point, making a seven point net gain for the Romney/Ryan campaign.
These numbers match up with Rasmussen's August 16, 2012 results showing the same 48/47 numbers for Romney Obama. CNN/ORC polling has Obama ahead of Romney, by 49 percent to 45 percent, but is the only one of the three pollsters who conducted a poll after the announcement of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney's running mate, that used registered voters as their sample instead of likely voters which is more predictive of the actual outcome.
Almost all pollsters start using the likely voter model as elections draw near.
What makes this even more significant is from 1988 through 2008, Wisconsin has favored Democrats in the presidential elections. 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 all went to the Democratic candidate for president.
According to 270ToWin, and PPP, Wisconsin, for now, is considered a swing state.
