While politicos waited with bated breath for the latest Marquette University poll to come out, something interesting happened along the way that had the release of the results greeted with higher anticipation.

As we’ve written before, the MarquetteUniversity poll has become the standard for statewide polling in Wisconsin. Their results appear to be more accurate on a consistent basis than other statewide polls.

There have not been a lot of other public polls to compare to this early on in the race, so last month when Rasmussen released their survey for Wisconsin, which had the race between Walker and Burke deadlocked at 45-45, it left a lot of folks scratching their heads. In recent history, Rasmussen had a reputation for results that skewed toward Republican candidates, and there are mixed reviews regarding their methodology and effectiveness; henceforth, everyone took the numbers with a grain of salt.

The recently released Marquette University poll did not, however, show a race moving in Burke’s direction, but one that was, for the most part, standing still. Walker leads Burke 48-41 (compared to 47-41 in February).

Walker’s job performance ratings flattened out moving from 51 approve/42 disapprove in the previous poll to measure an even 47/47 in the late March test. Burke, while more known to voters than she was in February, still has nearly 60% of the sample not being able to give an opinion about her. When all was said and done, Governor Walker maintained his “almost” comfortable lead.