LSU’s Public Policy Research Lab finds voters are not yet tuned in to Louisiana governor’s race

Few voters are paying attention to the campaign for Governor in Louisiana. According to a recent survey conducted by LSU’s Public Policy Research Lab, or PPRL, and sponsored by the Manship School of Mass Communication’s Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs, only 25 percent of voters in the state are closely following news about the election and just 22 percent say they have given a lot of thought to it.
Neither party has been able to gain an edge in voter engagement. Republicans are paying more attention to news about the campaign than Democrats – 29 percent versus 22 percent – but more Democrats say they have given the contest a lot of thought – 30 percent, compared to 13 percent.
Voters’ lack of attention to the campaign is also reflected in how well they know the major candidates. For three of the four major candidates – Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle, Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne and State Sen. John Bel Edwards – a majority of voters claim to not have enough familiarity to offer an opinion about them. U.S. Senator David Vitter has the most name recognition of the four major candidates, but nearly a third of voters – 28 percent – remain unfamiliar with him as well.
“We will likely see these numbers change as we get closer to Election Day and voters start paying more attention to the campaign,” said Michael Henderson, research director of PPRL. “In the meantime, this is a caution against over-interpreting early polls about who voters might choose to support. Opinions and vote intentions could shift quite a bit as voters start tuning in.”
The major candidates are faring well among those voters who have heard of them. Each candidate has a net favorable rating, meaning more people have positive opinions about them than negative opinions.
About the Louisiana Survey
Data in this report are from a randomly selected, statewide representative group of adult residents of Louisiana. Data was collected via telephone interviews conducted from March 10 to March 31, among a randomly selected state sample of 1,045 adult residents, ages 18 or older. The survey includes a traditional landline telephone survey combined with a survey of Louisiana cell phone users. The combined sample of 1,045 respondents includes 525 respondents interviewed on a landline and 520 respondents interviewed on a cell phone. The combined landline and cell phone sample is weighted using an iterative procedure that matches race and ethnicity, education, household income, gender and age to known profiles for Louisiana found in the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. The sample is also weighted for population density by parish using parameters from 2012 United States Census data. Results in this report are for 910 respondents reporting they are registered voters. The registered voter sample has an overall margin of error of plus/minus 4.3 percentage points
A copy of the report containing these results is available at www.survey.lsu.edu.