Republican challenger Bill Cassidy's continued attacks on Sen. Mary Landrieu's support of Obamacare in their Louisiana race has brought Cassidy within 1 percentage point of the Democrat in a hypothetical November election, according to the latest Public Policy Polling survey.
Cassidy, a physician who has charged that Obamacare would put as many as 40 percent of the state's residents on Medicaid, now trails Landrieu only 44 percent to 45 percent, according to the PPP survey of 635 registered state voters taken Feb. 6-9. The
results were released on Tuesday.
In August, the three-term incumbent held a 10-point lead over Cassidy, 50 percent to 40 percent — and she was ahead by 7 points in October, 48 percent to 41 percent.
"The Louisiana race is a sheer toss-up now," said Dean Debnam, PPP's president. "The difficulties with the launch of Obamacare seem to really have taken a toll on Mary Landrieu's standing."
In addition, Cassidy leads his Republican challengers: 25 percent to 5 percent against state Rep. Paul Hollis, and 25 percent to 3 percent against retired Army Col. Rob Maness.
But Landrieu holds stronger leads against those GOP challengers: 48 percent to 42 percent over Hollis and 47 percent to 42 percent against Maness, PPP found.
"Early attack ads on Landrieu have taken a big toll on her approval ratings," Debnam said.
Landrieu's disapproval rating stood at 52 percent in the latest PPP survey, compared with a 37 percent approval rating.
In August, 46 percent of the voters approved of her job performance on Capitol Hill, compared with 43 percent who did not.
"The early ad blitz seems to have had the effect of creating a strong correlation between attitudes toward Landrieu and attitudes toward Obamacare," Debnam said.
Only 33 percent of those polled in the latest PPP survey approved of the Affordable Care Act, compared with 53 percent who did not.
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