A new survey by the University of New Orleans Survey Research Center says Democratic state Rep. John Bel Edwards has a 22-point lead over Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter in the runoff to be Louisiana’s next governor, thanks in part to more than one-fourth of registered Republicans who plan on voting for Edwards.
The poll, which was conducted via telephone with 600 likely voters, shows 56% of respondents say they plan on voting for Edwards, while 34% say they’ll cast their vote for Vitter. Another 10% of respondents say they’re still deciding on their pick for governor. The poll shows 92% of Democrats supporting Edwards, as well as 54% of independents and 27% of Republicans.
“Republicans are typically more loyal to their candidates,” the survey notes. “The fact that one-quarter of Republican voters say they are going to defect and vote for Edwards is indicative of the fractured state of the Republican Party.”
The poll suggests Republicans are less fractured when it comes to the lieutenant governor’s race between Republican Billy Nungesser and Democrat Kip Holden. While Nungesser is leading 49% to 39%, with 12% of voters still undecided in that runoff, the poll shows each candidate is garnering about 70% of the vote from their own party bases.
“Support for these candidates falls along racial and partisan lines,” the survey says. “For instance, two-thirds of whites favor Billy Nungesser compared to three-quarters of blacks who favor Kip Holden.”
The UNO poll also asked voters if they think the state is headed in the right or wrong direction, and the large majority were pessimistic on the outlook. Sixty-seven percent of respondents say Louisiana is heading in the wrong direction, with just 20% saying the opposite and 13% saying they don’t know. A UNO survey conducted in October of last year found 52% of respondents felt the state was heading in the wrong direction.
“It appears that unhappiness about the direction of the state has deepened over the year,” the survey says.
So, too, has unhappiness with Gov. Bobby Jindal. The governor’s approval rating fell to 20% in the UNO poll, down from 40% who approved of his job performance in the survey conducted
last October. Meanwhile, the share of respondents who say they disapprove with Jindal’s performance increased to 70% in the most recent poll.
The runoff elections will be held Saturday, Nov. 21. Early voting is underway and continues through Saturday.
See the complete UNO survey results.
—Steve Sanoski
