Posted on 01/16/2007 8:03:44 PM PST by LdSentinal
BATON ROUGE, La. -- A new poll shows only about one-third of Louisiana's voters would vote to re-elect Gov. Kathleen Blanco in a race against U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal.
Jindal, who lost the governor's race to Blanco in 2003, had strong support in the poll conducted by Southern Media and Opinion Research and released Tuesday. Though he hasn't announced whether he will run for the position, Jindal garnered nearly 59 percent of the vote, compared to Blanco's 35 percent in the survey.
"To say the least for an incumbent governor, this is obviously not good news for her," said pollster Bernie Pinsonat.
When likely Democratic candidate Foster Campbell, a state public service commissioner, was included in the poll, Blanco's support fell to 31 percent. Fifty-eight percent of those polled said they would vote for Jindal and 6 percent for Campbell.
Few poll respondents were undecided, less than 5 percent, which Pinsonat said makes it tougher for Blanco, a Democrat, to make headway with Louisiana voters.
The election, however, is months away on Oct. 20, and the slate of candidates remains unclear.
Blanco intends to run for re-election and has many accomplishments to tout on the campaign trail, said Cynthia Dupree, fundraiser for the Blanco campaign.
"This is only one snapshot of a campaign that really hasn't begun yet. I think we're going to see many more polls and many more pundits weigh in on this race," Dupree said, adding that she hadn't seen the Southern Media poll results.
Pinsonat said the telephone survey, of 600 likely Louisiana voters, could help Jindal's chances of keeping most other Republican candidates out of the governor's race while fueling speculation among Democrats about other possible Democratic candidates for the job.
The governor did poorly in the survey in most areas of the state, including her home base of Acadiana. Her strongest poll showing was in north Louisiana. There, 46 percent of voters said they would choose Blanco over Jindal and 47 percent said they would choose Jindal in a head-to-head race. Campbell, a north Louisiana resident, mainly would eat into Blanco's support there if he were a candidate, according to the poll.
Jindal, a Republican congressman from Kenner, has told supporters that he is interested in running again for governor and is actively fundraising for a gubernatorial campaign. However, he hasn't announced his plans, saying he would make a decision in the next few weeks.
Blanco's poll numbers plummeted after Hurricane Katrina devastated south Louisiana in August 2005 and government officials, including Blanco, were criticized for poor planning and poor hurricane response.
Blanco is running out of time to improve her standing with voters, Pinsonat said.
"If the election were held today, they've made a decision that they're not going to vote for her. The question is how long can this go on that she can change it?" Pinsonat said. "After nearly 18 months, she obviously has a problem with the voters."
The Southern Media poll was conducted from Friday through Sunday and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Pinsonat said he added the two questions about the governor's race to a legislative issues poll paid for by various lobbying groups. He said the lobbyists weren't connected to a specific candidate or party but were looking at issues that may come before state lawmakers, including term limits and spending priorities.
Blanco's support among Democrats was at 53 percent in the Southern Media poll, and she garnered only 19 percent of white voters, who make up 66 percent of all 2.8 million voters in Louisiana. Her strongest numbers came from black males, 82 percent of whom said they would choose Blanco over Jindal.
please vote against Blanco.
Some chocolate must be melting in LA.
Well I hope the voters of LA learned their lesson, somehow I doubt it...
Good news. I thought Jindal really looked impressive the last time around. And Blanco is an idiot.
Yea. I like the guy. Feel sorry for the sorry mess he will have to deal with.
Friends I have in LA. have all stated that if Jindal was Governor when Katrina hit you would not have seen half of this mess. They claim he is a very bright guy.
As much as I would like to think Jindal will be elected, I really feel Louisiana will re-elct Blanco.
History is on her side. Look at Nagin.
Therefore, like Mayor Noggin, she must be reelected.
Blanco isn't running in Narleans, and she isn't black. Getting re-elected is going to be a tall order for her. Jindal OTOH squeaks if you pinch him. He a good clean candidate with a proven record in LA politics. A rare bird for Louisiana.
Except they elected her over himthe last time and she was already a clueless idiot then BEFORE Katrina.
There are many in Cajun country that now admit they didn't vote for Jindal because he was too brown and not Catholic enough. Blanco lied as usual and painted him as brown and a Hindu who only converted to Catholicism to run for Governor. The people I know in Cajun country say they won't make the same mistake twice.
I hope not but those cajuns got the government they voted for last time, so I hope they are blaming President Bush like so many others for Katrina.
They could have had a bright intelligent man, instead of the semi-moran WHITE woman they voted for.
Louisiana's gain is America's loss: Bobby Jindal would be great in the Senate.
Just wait awhile, gov. first then the presidency.
Agreed. The Republicans desperately need some stars in the statehouses - Jindal helps replenish the stock.
Regards, Ivan
We've been down this road once before with Jindal, where a lot of Louisianans were telling the pollsters they were voting for Jindal, and it turned out many of them were lying, so I'm not going to get excited about these numbers.
But Katrina has changed things somewhat there, so only time will tell.
Our communist governor in Michigan, who has made the state an economic basket case (highest unemployment in the Country), polled at 43% six months before the election. She won with 57% of the vote.
Never, ever underestimate the stupidity of the average voter. (See my tagline)
He's a genius, literally. He's a Rhode's scholar, has a gift for weeding out red tape bureaucracy and fraud while allowing more services to reach the individual.
When asked in the gubernatorial debates what he would do if the Big One was aiming for New Orleans he gave a very detailed answer starting with do what was necessary to activate the feds so that all assets could be in place then he went down the list item by item. Blanko said, "I will contact the media."
They were idiots not to elect Jindal last time.
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