New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin’s approval ratings have sunk to their lowest levels since he took office in 2002, but residents’ overall satisfaction with the city has matched pre-Hurricane Katrina levels, according to a poll released today.
Twenty-four percent of voters surveyed last month by the University of New Orleans Survey Research Center said they approve or strongly approve of Nagin’s performance, down from 31% in 2008. His average approval rating during his first term was 60%, but it dropped to 29% for his second term, which started in 2007 and ends next year.
The poll results released today also found that the City Council’s approval ratings dropped from 70% in 2008 to 48% this year. UNO’s study cites the council’s “sour relations” with the mayor and “internal problems” as possible reasons for the steep drop in its approval ratings.
The results are based on a telephone survey of 602 registered voters in Orleans and Jefferson parishes during the last week of March. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
The poll also found stark racial divisions in how voters evaluated city officials’ performance. Five percent of white voters said they approve or strongly approve of Nagin’s performance, compared with 36% of black voters. The poll also found that 73% of white voters said they approve or strongly approve of the New Orleans City Council, compared to 36% of blacks. Four of the council’s seven members are white.
