LA CROSSE, Wisconsin (WXOW) -- The most recent Marquette University Law School Poll showed Mitt Romney trailing President Barack Obama in the Badger State.
Poll Director Charles Franklin said it remains to be seen if those numbers change following Romney's addition of Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan to the Republican ticket.
"What we've seen through most of the year is Obama with a single digit lead in Wisconsin," Franklin said.
"Now, I would expect the race to tighten some as a result of this," he said. "But whatever effect Ryan on the ticket has today, next week and the week after will be washed away eventually when we get to the fall campaign."
Franklin did not make a prediction as to which campaign will emerge victorious in the fall, but said the Ryan choice does leave Romney vulnerable to criticism from the Democrats -- who have previously voiced their displeasure at the Congressman's budget proposal.
The President even went so far as to call it "social Darwinism."
"With Ryan, Romney goes for a very strong spokesman for reducing the budget deficit, but also for someone who has been very specific about budget cuts in ways that the Romney campaign has so far chosen not to be specific," said Franklin, in reference to Ryan's budget plan -- which calls for the partial privatization of medicare.
"So in adding Ryan to the ticket, the Romney campaign almost inevitably has to support all the details of the Ryan budget," he added.
