Madison - Gov. Scott Walker and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett are locked in a dead-even race for governor, according to a poll released Wednesday by Marquette University Law School.

The poll also showed Barrett leading his Democratic rivals in Tuesday's primary. The primary winner will face the Republican governor in the June 5 recall election.

Among registered voters, Barrett led Walker 47% to 46%. That 1-point advantage was reversed when considering only likely voters, with Walker holding 48% and Barrett holding 47%.

That's "just about as close to a tie as you can possibly get," said the poll's director, visiting Marquette political science professor Charles Franklin, during a webcast about his findings.

The results are even closer than one done by Marquette in March, when Walker led Barrett 47% to 45%. Those findings, like the ones in the poll released Wednesday, were within the margin of error.

The latest poll was released just two days after candidates filed fundraising reports that showed Walker with a huge cash advantage. But so far his heavy spending has not allowed him to break away from Barrett.

Walker performed better against former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk. He beat her 49% to 42% among registered voters, with similar results among likely voters. Walker had an advantage of 49% to 40% among registered voters in head-to-head matchups with both Secretary of State Doug La Follette and state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout of Alma.

In the polling for the primary, Barrett had 38%, Falk had 21%, La Follette had 8% and Vinehout had 6%. Sixteen percent were undecided.

When tallying the numbers to include undecided voters who were leaning toward a particular candidate, Barrett did even better, with 45% to Falk's 23%. La Follette and Vinehout each had 8% when including leaning voters.

Barrett led among all demographic groups in the primary, Franklin said.

"Despite being vastly outspent and targeted by millions and millions of dollars from Scott Walker and his right-wing special interest allies, Tom Barrett is in a dead heat with Walker in the race for governor," Barrett spokesman Phil Walzak said in a statement.

But Falk questioned the poll's findings when she talked to reporters during a campaign tour of Union Cab, a taxi cooperative in Madison.

"The establishment naysayers have predicted this whole year incorrectly," she said. "They said this recall would never get off the ground."

In a meeting with Journal Sentinel editors and reporters, Walker said major races in Wisconsin are always close.

"Much as you saw in 2000 and 2004 in this state, politically you have got a very evenly divided state, Republican and Democrat," he said. "This is not a new phenomenon.

"Anytime you've got a tight race, this is the way things are going to be. So we expected all along a tight race. For all the talk about the numbers (cash) yesterday, we needed to offset the overwhelming amount of money that has come in the past year in Wisconsin and that continues to come in."

Fundraising reports filed Monday showed Walker had raised more than $13 million from mid-January to mid-April, blowing out fundraising records for state candidates. During a similar period, Barrett raised $831,500 and Falk raised $977,000. Falk has also been helped by ads from a union-funded group called Wisconsin for Falk that raised $4.5 million and debuted a new spot Wednesday.

The survey was conducted Thursday to Sunday and was done in live interviews made to land lines and cellphones.

It included 705 registered voters, 561 of whom identified as likely to vote in the June recall election. For the Democratic primary, it consisted of 451 registered voters and 399 likely voters.

The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points for the full sample and plus or minus 4.7 percentage points for the registered voters who said they would vote in the Democratic primary.

Walker faces token opposition in the GOP primary Tuesday from Arthur Kohl-Riggs, a liberal protester from Madison. No poll results were released on that race.

For those planning to vote in the Democratic primary, the poll found the most important issue was creating jobs (46%), followed by defeating Walker (25%), reducing the state's political divisions (14%) and restoring collective bargaining for public workers (12%).

The recall effort was sparked after Walker and Republicans who controlled the Legislature last year advanced a plan to all but eliminate collective bargaining for public workers. Falk has pledged to veto the state budget if it does not include bringing back collective bargaining, while Barrett has said he would try to restore it by calling a special legislative session.

The poll showed 37% favored a veto pledge while 48% opposed it. On calling a special session, 52% supported it and 39% opposed it.

Among all registered voters polled, 49% said they favored limiting collective bargaining for public workers while 45% opposed it. Walker's changes last year also included requiring public workers to pay more for their benefits; 73% liked that idea, and 23% opposed it.

Those polled said they did not favor cutting state spending by reducing aid to schools and reducing the number of people eligible for the BadgerCare Plus health care program - two approaches that Walker took. Two-thirds opposed cutting schools and 58% opposed reducing access to BadgerCare Plus.

Tuesday's primary will include fake or protest Democrats that Republicans fielded to ensure Walker's recall is held the same day as recalls against Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and Republican state senators. Voters don't like that strategy; 59% of those polls opposed the idea, including a majority of Republicans.

The turmoil of the past year and a half in Wisconsin has translated into political involvement. The poll found 58% talked about politics with family and friends at least once a week. More than a third had signed a recall petition since January 2011 and a quarter had gotten a yard sign or bumper sticker.

Twenty-nine percent said in the past year that they had stopped talking to someone because of politics.

The survey also showed President Barack Obama continuing to lead the all-but-certain Republican nominee Mitt Romney in Wisconsin. Obama had 51% to Romney's 42%.

Bill Glauber of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report from Milwaukee.

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Click here to see how people answered the poll's questions.