Jindal’s approval falls below 50%

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer

As Bobby Jindal begins to lay seeds for a possible run for the White House, approval at home seems to be falling for the Louisiana Governor.

The new survey finds Louisiana voters are as conservative as ever, backing the Governor’s refusal to implement the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare to critics, by a 13 point margin. However, in a bright sign for Democrats, it also shows that the local electorate has grown slightly critical of Jindal’s refusal of expanded Medicaid dollars.

The new poll from Voter Consu?mer Research out of Washington D.C. revealed that 21.0 percent of Louisianians “approve-strongly” Governor Jindal, 24.9 percent “approve-somewhat”. That 45.9 percent approval rating for Bobby Jindal stands in contrast to a disapproval rating of 48.4 percent (11.8 percent “disapprove-somewhat” & 36.6 percent “disapprove-strongly”) .

This is the first time that Bobby Jindal’s disapproval rating has exceeded his approval rating, or that the governor has fallen below 50 percent public approval since his first election. As recently as September 2012, Southern Media and Opinion Research had put the Governor’s approval rating at 51 percent, and a year before in 2011 had ranked it at 64 percent.

The VCR survey, conducted on behalf of the Louisiana State Medical Society, sampled 600 registered voters, with a margin of error of +/- 4 percent. The poll was in the field January 13-17. In it, the legislature also gains terrible marks. Only 8.6 percent of voters “strongly-approved” of the job done by the House and Senate members, with a 37.7 percent “somewhat-approve.” That contrasts with a 50.2 percent disapproval rating.

The survey also asked, “Switch-ing to healthcare reforms proposed by President Obama that were adopted a couple of years ago, do you approve or do you disapprove of the federal health care law? And, do you strongly or just somewhat approve or disapprove?”

Voters were fervent in their op-position to “Obamacare,” with 26.1 percent “strongly-approve” and 14.8 percent “somewhat-approve”. In contrast, 46.9 percent “strongly-disapprove“, and just 7.1 percent “somewhat-disapprove“.

Still, that did not stop people from thinking that Jindal is making a mistake in refusing expanded Medicaid dollars. Support for participation “in Medicaid expansion” was 51 percent to 43 percent.

Likewise, most voters are satisfied with the quality and access to health care, but not the cost.

Those that believed the pre-storm Charity Hospital System worked well versus the governor’s proposed reforms employing private hospitals showed a statistical tie. Just 45.7 percent approved of the Charity System versus 44.2 percent who favored major reforms.

This article was originally published in the February 11, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper