Two polls show him down in ratings for the first time since he took office in Louisiana.
Bureau Report
WASHINGTON, DC: Louisiana Republican Governor Bobby Jindal, who won with a whopping margin, and got re-elected for a second term, and is touted as a presidential contender for the 2016 polls, is facing some tough issues at home: for the first time since he took office, his approval ratings have dipped below 50 percent, according to a poll released by Voter/Consumer Research, a GOP pollster, in Washington, DC, today.
The poll, which also took the temperature of Louisianians on recent national and statewide health-care decisions, highlighted how nearly half of those polled believe the state is on the wrong track, reported The Times-Picayune.
The polling company’s website says its clients “include corporations, associations, political candidates, I&R campaigns, IE campaigns and Republican Party committees.”
Only U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter had approval ratings over 50 percent, with the Democrat topping her Republican colleague by 59 to 55 percent, according to the poll. Jindal’s approval rating dropped to 49 percent – down from 51 percent in September – while Treasurer John Kennedy polled at 49 percent and Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne at 45 percent.
Jindal’s approval has been consistently high, in the 60s or even 70s, and he rode on that that to an easy, successful reelection campaign.
Approval ratings for the state Legislature were similar, with 46 percent of respondents saying they somewhat or strongly approved of the job state lawmakers are doing and just over 40 percent saying they disapproved. Nearly 47 percent of Louisianians think the state is on the wrong track, however, with less than 38 percent thinking it is headed in the right direction.
The poll, done in conjunction with the Louisiana State Medical Society, also made clear that while most Louisianans do not support President Barack Obama’s 2010 health-care law, they also are not happy with Jindal’s decision to pass on the expansion of the Medicaid program in the state, said the Times-Picayune.
According to the poll, 51 percent of respondents said the state should participate in the expansion. While 41 percent continued to question the state’s ability to pay for the expansion long-term, 52 percent said opting out of the expansion would leave “millions of federal dollars on the table that would be available for health services.”
The Washington Post in a blog pointed out that the survey came in a week which also led to flashbacks to Jindal’s widely panned, Kenneth-the-Page-esque official GOP response to President Obama’s 2009 State of the Union Speech, thanks to Marco Rubio’s “sip slip.”
Another poll from Democratic automated pollster Public Policy Polling this week was even worse, with Jindal’s approval at just 37 percent, compared to 57 percent disapproval.
Jindal political adviser Timmy Teepell said the polls are a momentary blip on the screen.
“Polls go up and down — higher and lower based on who’s paying for them,” Teepell said. “Bobby is focused on creating jobs and growing the economy in Louisiana, and nothing’s going stop him from doing that.”
In a comment on the Republican contenders for 2016, Slate.com harked to the theory that Jindal is jst mouthing Bushnomics.
“Like any party in defeat the GOP now must rebrand, and in rebranding, the party has decided to look backward to George W. Bush. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal seems to have realized this before others. “Balancing the government’s books is a nice goal, but that is not our primary objective,” runs his now-standard speech on repositioning the party. “We must not become the party of austerity. We must become the party of growth,” it said.
Earlier this month, Politico reported Jindal, in a speech at the Republican National Committee’s meeting in Charlotte, said that the GOP needed to “stop being the stupid party.” He reiterated those sentiments during the Fox News interview this week and said that Republicans need to rethink how they’re talking to Americans.
“A majority of American voters think that the government is trying to do too much. They want smaller government yet they still voted for President Obama — that means we’re not winning the conversation. We’re not presenting our ideas. We’re not in that debate as well as we should be,” Jindal said on Fox News.
He continued: “If Ronald Reagan were alive today, if he were running for office today — this is what he would say about that poor person on food stamps or welfare or signing up for unemployment. He’d say, ‘This poor woman wants a better quality of life for herself and for her children.’ He would honor the dignity of that person and say, ‘I can provide her a better economic future by putting in place policies that actually work.’ We need to be having that kind of debate.”