Challengers' total leads Landrieu in Senate polling

In their strongest poll showing yet, three Republican challengers lead U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu by 10 points in an independent poll of likely voters.
The survey by Southern Media and Opinion Research shows Landrieu at 36 percent; Congressman Bill Cassidy of Baton Rouge, 35.4; Rob Maness of Covington, 7.1; state Sen. Paul Hollis of Mandeville, 3.9; and undecided, 16.6.
The sample of 600 likely voters was taken April 28-30, with a margin of error of +/- 4 percent. The poll was financed by the firm’s subscribers, according to partner Bernie Pinsonat.
The survey results contrast to a recent New York Times poll in which Landrieu led Cassidy, 42-18 percent.
Pinsonat said his firm used the model of recent statewide non-presidential elections that forecast an overall turnout of less than 50 percent, with African-Americans comprising 26 percent of the electorate, compared to 31 percent of registration.
The New York Times’ poll was weighted toward Democrats. In that poll, 31 percent of respondents said they voted for President Barack Obama in 2012 to 28 percent who said they voted for Mitt Romney. Romney carried Louisiana, 59-41 percent.
The SMOR poll memo points out that Landrieu’s approval rating has slid over the last two years to 41 percent favorable and 58 percent unfavorable, not much better than the president’s 35 percent favorable and 63 percent unfavorable. She draws 79 percent of African-Americans but only 20 percent of whites.

Legacy attorneys
had investment
in legacy site
The Talbot, Carmouche & Marcello law firm has not only filed the majority of the legacy lawsuits pending in Louisiana’s courts, but its namesake partners also invested in a well site roughly four years ago that the state found had the same kind of environmental deficiencies that the attorneys have railed against in their many legal proceedings.
Don’t call it ironic, said partner John Carmouche, who told LaPolitics the pollution cited by the Department of Natural Resources in 2010 was caused by previous operators and a field partly shared with Shell. “That is what we’re saying is the problem,” Carmouche said.
“You have current owners out there being held liable for other peoples’ contamination.”
Carmouche likewise made the distinction that the firm’s lead partners — Don and John Carmouche and Vic Marcello — were only investors, not operators.
“I was just an investor of a well hoping it hits,” he said.
The company operating the well was IEOG, which was founded by Gregory Miller and Patrick Broussard of ICON, who the law firm has used to provide expert testimony for its legacy lawsuits.
The Department of Natural Resources first sent IEOG a compliance order in 2010, informing the company that any failure to clean up the site would result in a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per day.
In the wake of some back and forth between IEOG and DNR, documented in public records obtained by LaPolitics, it took slightly more than two years for the site to meet state standards, a timeline confirmed by John Carmouche.
“They basically cleaned up a site they didn’t pollute,” he said.

They Said It
“The good news is all of us walked out the way we walked in. No real injuries.”
—Sen. Mike Walsworth on the annual Hoopla legislative basketball game, won by the House

“You might be the first senator to filibuster his own bill.”
—Sen. J.P. Morrell on Sen. Dan Claitor’s lengthy bill explanation

For more Louisiana political news, visit www.LaPolitics.com or follow Maginnis and Alford on Twitter @LaPoliticsNow.