PRESS RELEASE

MEDIA ADVISORY      
January 15, 2008

NEW POLL:
MORRIS/SCALISE RUNOFF LIKELY
Voters Very Familiar With Ben Morris

According to a new poll, conducted by Dr. Verne Kennedy of MRI, Slidell Mayor Ben Morris and State Senator Steve Scalise are well ahead of other competitors and likely to face each other in a runoff.

The poll conducted January 8th and 9th is the most recent survey to be released. In fact, it is the only poll to come after the announcement by Parish President Kevin Davis that he would not run for Congress.

In the survey, Mayor Morris showed extremely high name ID and positive awareness. His total name ID showed nearly 60% and he had positive negative ratio of five to one. In a head-to-head survey, Mayor Morris and Scalise are statically tied with 22% and 27% respectively. State Representative Tim Burns and Councilman John Young trail significantly with 6% and 12% respectively.

Building On A Strong Base

“Ben Morris should be very pleased with these results,” said Dr. Kennedy. “His high positive name ID reflects his years of hard work and no-nonsense approach to governing. These are extremely impressive numbers for a local mayor. When you combine his name ID and the fact that he represents the most populous city on the Northshore, things look very good for the Morris campaign.”

Ben Morris was first elected Mayor of Slidell in 2002 when he won an impressive outright primary victory. Most recently the Mayor was re-elected in 2006, winning over 80% of the vote. Prior to serving as Mayor, Ben Morris served three terms as Slidell’s Chief of Police. Morris is a Republican candidate in the upcoming primary election to be held on March 8th. 57% of the registered voters in the 1st District reside on the Northshore, with Slidell being the largest municipality on the Northshore.

The 300 sample survey was conducted January 8th and 9th by Market Research Insight and is available for review by clicking here.

ABOUT MRI & DR. KENNEDY

MRI is a full service marketing research company providing research based marketing strategies for political campaigns. Market Research Insight, like many successful companies, is a product of its founder. Dr. Verne R. Kennedy has gained national recognition in both marketing research and higher education. A native of New Orleans, he completed his Ph.D. degree at Louisiana State University and post-doctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Kennedy held faculty positions at the University of Georgia, the University of South Alabama, and Louisiana College, before accepting the presidency of Belhaven College in 1978. Dr. Kennedy fulfilled all requirements for his Ph.D. degree at age 25 and was a college president at age 36. In 1986, Dr. Kennedy left higher education to devote full attention to the research firm.

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