GOP poll: Cassidy holds big lead over Landrieu

Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) has a huge lead over Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) ahead of their Senate runoff election on Saturday, according to conservative-leaning polling outlet Rasmussen Reports.

{mosads}Cassidy leads by 16 points in the poll, taking 56 percent against Landrieu, who came in at 40 percent.

There’s one hopeful data point in the poll for Landrieu – 30 percent of Louisianans said they had already voted, and among this group, Cassidy’s advantage narrows to 50 percent to 44 percent.

Still, early voting numbers in the state are working against the Democratic incumbent. According to data from Louisiana’s secretary of State’s office, the number of Republicans in the early voting period for the runoff increased from early voting ahead of the Nov. 4 jungle primary.

Meanwhile, the number of Democrats fell by nearly18 percent and the number of black voters, with whom Landrieu has near universal support, fell sharply.

There’s been a dearth of polling for the Louisiana Senate race during the runoff period. Many of the polls have been conducted by conservative-leaning outlets, but show Landrieu trailing by 17.6 percentage points, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls.

Two internal polls conducted on behalf of Republicans also show Cassidy with a similar lead.

On Election Day, Landrieu took 43 percent in a field where Republicans split the vote. Cassidy took 42 percent, and Tea Party candidate Rob Maness took 14 percent.

But Cassidy has since rallied conservative support, and Republicans and outside groups in the state continue to spend big on his behalf, while Landrieu has been effectively silenced on the airwaves.

The Rasmussen survey of 1,000 likely voters in Louisiana was conducted between Dec. 2 and Dec. 4 and has a 3-percentage-point margin of error.