SLU POLL: BLANCO, JINDAL IN “STATISTICAL TIE”
      HAMMOND --  According to a Southeastern Louisiana University poll, Kathleen Blanco and Bobby Jindal are in "a razor thin statistical tie" as the candidates begin the final week of campaigning leading to the November 15 Louisiana gubernatorial runoff.
      Data gathered from 705 statewide registered voters by faculty and students in Southeastern's Florida Parishes Social Sciences Research Center indicates 41.4 percent favor Kathleen Blanco, while Bobby Jindal is favored by 40.1 percent, said Kurt Corbello, associate professor of political science and director of the poll. The poll has a sampling error of plus or minus 3.8 percent.
      Corbello said a total of 18.5 percent of those surveyed were undecided or refuse to state a preference. "However," he added, "when undecided 'leaners' are apportioned among the candidates, Blanco has 45.1 percent and Jindal has 42.9 percent, while 12 percent are undecided."
      Corbello said the poll factored in past voting behavior "as a rough method of determining the likelihood that someone might turnout to vote on election-day." Although low voter turnout in Louisiana elections traditionally favors Republican candidates, "that doesn't appear to be the case in this runoff," Corbello said.
      Among chronic voters - those who have voted at least four times in the last five statewide elections prior to the October 4 primary, 41.5 percent of those surveyed preferred Jindal, while 40.7 percent favored Blanco.
      Corbello said that neither candidate appears to gain substantially from either black or white chronic voters.
      The poll also indicates that both candidates have high favorability ratings: Blanco 62.7 percent; Jindal 60.9 percent. Other statistics point to the continuation of traditional demographic voting patterns. Black voters favored Blanco 61.7 percent to 12.1 percent for Jindal, with 26.2
percent undecided.  Democratic voters favored Blanco with 58.6 percent to Jindal's 23.7 percent, while Republicans favor Jindal with 68.2 percent to Blanco's 22.7 percent.  
      "Pure independent voters are a toss-up and heavily undecided," Corbello said. "On the other hand, there does not appear to be much of a difference between the voting preferences of men and women, and there appears little or no gender gap in this runoff.
      "There has been at least some popular speculation that Jindal's youth would attract young voters to the polls on election day, giving him support," Corbello said. "At least in terms of voting intentions, our poll does not support that conclusion. In fact, in our poll Blanco beats Jindal 46.3 percent to 37.3 percent among voters 35 years of age or younger.
      Regionally, the poll indicates that the candidates are tied in the Cajun Triangle and in southeastern Louisiana with Blanco having a slight lead in north/central Louisiana. Education levels appears to have little impact on voting preference, but Jindal leads among voters with higher levels of income, Corbello said.
      When asked "What do you think is the most important problem facing the State of Louisiana today?" Corbello said black voters targeted jobs first with education second, while white voters named education, with jobs as the second most important problem.
      The Southeastern poll also tested voters' attitudes toward state government spending, religious issues such as abortion and Creationism versus evolution, approval ratings for Governor Mike Foster and President George W. Bush, the race for Insurance Commissioner, and the legacy of former Governor Edwin Edwards.