As has been widely reported statewide, the Marquette Law School Poll released on Tuesday found the 2014 governor’s race shaping up to be close, which means an intensely fought campaign is all but a certainty. But it’s worth underscoring the degree to which the race, one year out from the election, is between Scott Walker and someone who’s not Scott Walker.

The poll found that the large majority of Wisconsin voters do not have an opinion yet on former Trek Bike executive Mary Burke, the only announced candidate for the Democratic nomination, or two state legislators who are considering running, Sen. Kathleen Vinehout and Democratic Assembly Leader Peter Barca. To be specific, 70% had no opinion on Burke, 79% on Vinehout, and 82% on Barca.

But they sure know who the Republican incumbent is. Only 4% had no opinion on Walker. And he remains a highly polarizing figure, with 50% saying they have a favorable opinion of him and 46% unfavorable. As Professor Charles Franklin said during the poll release event, a lot of governors would come nowhere near 96% name recognition in their home states.

The headlines about the newest Marquette Law School Poll are focusing on the 2014 race for governor and that’s certainly no surprise. Let’s be honest. For the news media (I’m still a member), the horserace is catnip. We can’t resist. But there’s another question in the Poll that may generate—forgive me—some buzz of its own. “Do you think the use of marijuana should be made legal, or not?” Of the 400 people who responded, 50 per cent said yes, marijuana should be legal. Forty-five per cent said it should not. (See question 33 of the poll results here.)

Surprising? Perhaps. But why is it significant? To be sure, marijuana will not be a major issue in next year’s elections in Wisconsin. We’re not about to become the next Colorado or Washington, where in statewide referenda voters made recreational pot use legal. We’re also not about to join the list of 20 states that permit marijuana for medical use, although two Democratic state lawmakers, Jon Erpenbach and Chris Taylor, are proposing we do just that. Erpenbach and Taylor say the public is ahead of the politicians on this one, and the Marquette Law School Poll suggests they may be right. Furthermore, a recent Gallup Poll found even stronger support for legalizing marijuana. For the first time ever, a clear majority of Americans, 58 percent, favored legalization.