INDReporter

Poll shows Vitter trouncing Traylor

by Nathan Stubbs

Touted as a viable intraparty threat to sitting U.S. Sen. David Vitter when he first announced his candidacy just over a month ago, former Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Chet Traylor has proven anything but. Touted as a viable intraparty threat to sitting U.S. Sen. David Vitter when he first announced his candidacy just over a month ago, former Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Chet Traylor has proven anything but. Revelations that Traylor may have played a role in splitting state Rep. Noble Ellington and his ex-wife, who then married Traylor, and that Traylor more recently has had an affair with his stepson's estranged wife, quickly took the wind out of the campaign sail. Ellington was on The Moon Griffon Show Wednesday morning to hammer home the point that Traylor, who has been attacking Vitter on moral grounds, is throwing bricks from a glass house.

Traylor faces off against Vitter in Saturday's Republican primary. However, his campaign obituary is already being written (See Sam Hanna's column). Also, national polling firm Public Policy Polling has this update on the race:
There have been a lot of bad campaigns across the country in 2010 but Chet Traylor may win the gold medal for having the singularly most unimpressive one. With the Louisiana Republican Senate primary coming Saturday Traylor trails Vitter by a remarkable 81-5 margin, barely even exceeding also-ran Nick Accardo's 4 percent despite the fact that Accardo's campaign has received virtually no attention.

Even if Traylor was a good candidate he'd face quite an uphill battle because Vitter's approval rating with Republican primary voters is a strong 78/17 spread. But Traylor has made quite a poor impression with the electorate. Only 10 percent of likely primary voters have a favorable opinion of him to 30% who seem him unfavorably. The 60 percent of Republicans with no opinion of him is a pretty good indicator of how his campaign never had the resources to get off the ground but the fact that his negatives out weigh his favorables 3:1 with those who do have an opinion of him wouldn't have boded very well anyway. This race will get called about 15 seconds after the returns after start coming in.