Poll: Ted Cruz, Bernie Sanders lead in Wisconsin primaries

MILWAUKEE – It’s amazing what a month of news, advertising and campaigning can do in a presidential primary.

Ted Cruz took the lead among Republicans in Wisconsin while Bernie Sanders pulled away slightly from Hillary Clinton in the Democratic race, the Marquette University Law School Poll showed Wednesday.

Among likely voters, Cruz was at 40 percent, Donald Trump was at 30 percent and John Kasich was at 21 percent.

Cruz basically doubled his level of support in the state in the past month.

In the Democratic race, Sanders led Clinton by 49 percent to 45 percent. In February’s poll, Sanders led Clinton by 1 point.

The poll leaked on the Internet about an hour before the 12:15 p.m. release. Poll officials said the files were visible in a way they should not have been on the server.

“When they saw the files, it spread like wildfire” said poll director Charles Franklin.

The poll of 1,405 registered voters conducted Thursday thorough Monday had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percent.