504 likely voters, taken Aug. 13-18:
59% Bobby Jindal (R)
30% Rob Marionneaux (D)
But after poll respondents were read a paragraph of flattering information about Marionneaux and negative information about Jindal, the results flip-flopped, with 48 percent saying they would vote for Marionneaux and 40 percent for Jindal.
Jindal campaign manager Timmy Teepell described the survey as a "push poll" and said the results aren't credible because the respondents were given negative information about Jindal. He noted that it came from the same firm that produced a series of surveys last year that purported to show Democrat Charlie Melancon with a chance to beat Republican David Vitter in the U.S. Senate race.
Vitter beat Melancon by 19 percentage points, 57 percent to 38 percent.
"This poll is a joke. Push-polling is not scientific," Teepell said. "It plays upon the worst instincts of people, and the results aren't credible. But this is not the first time Anzalone-Liszt has engaged in the practice in Louisiana."
The firm, with offices in Montgomery, Ala., and Washington, D.C., polls mainly for Democratic candidates and has done surveys for President Barack Obama, U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, and others, according to its website. A phone call to the firm's Montgomery office late Thursday was not returned.
Teepell refused to share the results of the campaign's own internal polling, but he said the surveys are in line with the 59-30 lead in the Anzalone-Liszt poll before voters were provided with the negative information.
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/08/possible_bobby_jindal_rival_us.html
