A new poll shows Jeff Landry still leads in the race for Louisiana governor.
In that poll conducted by Faucheux Strategies, Landry drew 36 percent support to Democratic candidate Shawn Wilson's 26 percent. Independent Hunter Lundy polled at seven percent, while Republican Stephen Waguespack came in right behind him with six percent. The rest of the field polled at or below four percent. Fourteen percent of voters said they are undecided.
The poll also showed that Landry has a 50-percent favorability rating, outpacing the rest of the field by 30 or more percentage points in that category. According to the survey, respondents also rated Landry as the most unfavorable candidate, with 28 percent disapproving of the attorney general. Twenty percent of respondents said they have no opinion of Landry.
Meanwhile, a majority of respondents said they had didn't know Wilson or the other candidates well enough to offer an opinion on them either way.
The man who conducted the poll says a lot can change between now and Election Day.
"It depends on what the other candidates do between now and the election because most of them will be working to build up their recognition as they're trying to build up their vote," Ron Faucheux said. "They have a lot to do in six-and-a-half weeks, and it's going to be difficult for any of those candidates to do it, but not necessarily impossible."
Faucheux conducted the poll on behalf of the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate, WWL-TV, and several other media outlets and public interest groups. He says the other candidates could see their favorability ratings rise as they build their recognition among voters. Faucheux says the lesser-known candidates will need to target undecided voters--and Landry--in their ads.
"What they really want to look at is the undecided vote and see how that breaks and to see if the candidates go after Jeff Landry and attack him," Faucheux said. "Even though there have been some attacks so far, they haven't been that concentrated or that heavy. It's likely we'll see more of that as the election winds down."
While Faucheux believes it's unlikely that a dark horse candidate will make the runoff, he says it's not impossible. In fact, he points to two gubernatorial elections in the last 40 years to show that anyone can come from behind and win.
"Somebody like John Bel Edwards, for example, was an underdog when he got in the race, and he ultimately won the race fairly easily, so things can happen," Faucheux noted. "When Buddy Roemer was elected governor, sort of hit his stride and his momentum started to gather literally in the last three or four weeks. Up until that point, he was running way behind in the polls."
