Nearly 52% of the people who participated in a recent statewide poll say state lawmakers have done a “poor” or “not so good” job in office, and 60% say legislators acted in their own best interests during the recent redistricting session. The survey of 600 voters, which was done in April by Southern Media & Opinion Research Inc., found that Gov. Bobby Jindal’s approval ratings were largely unchanged, with an overall positive rating of 55% and a negative rating of 44%. That almost mirrors the 55% who gave Jindal positive marks in November and the 43% who had negative feelings. The survey was performed at the request of Baton Rouge businessman Lane Grigsby, who has been doing statewide polls every six months since April 2009. Pollster Bernie Pinsonat noted that voters had high expectations of Jindal and the Legislature when they took office in 2008, but the poll results show that many people feel those expectations are not being met. Sixty percent of respondents say the Legislature is about the same as its predecessors, while 23% say it is not as good as previous groups and 14% say it’s been doing a better job than previous Legislatures.
In other findings:
—While tax increases were uniformly opposed, 66% of participants favored higher cigarette taxes to balance the state budget.
—One year after the devastating oil spill, 65% of people had a negative impression of BP and three-fourths of respondents say they didn’t trust the company to do the right thing when it comes to paying for damages and lost wages.
See the full report on Grigsby’s website laplaintalk.com.
