Nearly two-thirds of Louisianans think the state is heading in the wrong direction, according to a new survey from LSU.
Residents also are increasingly dismayed with the state’s economic direction and have little confidence Louisiana lawmakers can solve the state’s most pressing issues, according to the second poll released as part of the annual Louisiana Survey.
“The public is in a historically grim mood,” reads the report, a project of the Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs at LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication.
The public’s mood darkened well before Gov. John Bel Edwards took office, but the recent shift leaves Edwards facing an unprecedented challenge, the report says.
“About half of Louisiana residents felt the state was heading in the right direction early in Gov. Blanco’s administration, but this share fell to about a third by the end of her term in office,” the report notes. “The share rose again to half at the start of the Jindal administration, but fell to little more than a quarter by his final months in office.”
Edwards’ administration, has not benefitted from a bounce in mood at the beginning of his term as Jindal did when he took office, the report notes.
Also, about 51% of those surveyed now think the state’s economy lags behind the nation’s economy, compared to 36% who said the same in 2015, the report says. The share of respondents who say state business conditions are worse now than they were a year ago rose to 40%, up from from 24% last year, while 26% of residents say their own financial situation is worse, up from 23% last year, the report says. Now, more Louisianans identify the state budget as the most important problem government has to fix, the report says.
The report found that attitudes about the direction of the state reflected political allegiances and that Republicans had soured the most.
“Republican mood began turning even while Gov. Jindal still held office. From early 2015 through the fall, the share of Republicans who felt the state was heading in the wrong direction rose by 15 percentage points, from 37% to 52%,” the report reads.
The mood of Democrats, meanwhile, shifted in the second half of 2015 and nearly mirrors the Republican sentiment.
“Despite their softening mood, Democrats are no more positive today than they were a year ago,” the report says.
According to the report 1,001 respondents were surveyed via telephone between Feb. 1-26. The sample has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. LSU’s Public Policy Research Lab, a division of the Reilly Center, designed the survey questionnaire and sampling strategy, computed the survey weights and conducted all statistical analysis. Telephone interviews were conducted by Reconnaissance Market Research.
