Kiss Country Listeners Near Even Split on Mask Mandate

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Let me start by saying that I've been wrong so many times in my life that I've almost developed a "taste" for crow.  And now, here I am again, sitting before another heaping helping of it. Thank goodness this time I'm not following it up with an even bigger dose of "foot in my mouth" as is usually the case, because this time I had the sense to keep my pie hole closed, but nonetheless, I was wrong about the way I saw things.

In a story we recently published about Louisiana's massive support of the governor's mask mandate, I was just sure the numbers were wrong. In this story we read that in a statewide poll, 76% of respondents were in favor or agreed with the mandate. In my little pea brain, I thought there's just no way that could be right. In no way could that many people like the fact that big brother was telling us what to do and they just could not have included enough representation from North Louisiana.

Well, let me set the record straight. There is more support for the mandate than one would have ever imagined.

This all began when Louisiana House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, disagreed with Governor John Bel Edwards so much on the issue, he was seeking enough support from other legislators to overthrow the governor's decision. To support his argument, he felt as though he'd take it to the people, so he commissioned Remington Research Group to poll Louisiana citizens about their feelings regarding Governor Edwards' mask mandate.

There were 3,600 people in the survey and it crossed demographics and political parties. It was a well thought out and well executed survey.

And I'm sure Schexnayder was even more surprised than I to learn that over three quarters of Louisianans actually sided with the governor on this one.

So, in an effort to prove my point of not having enough representation in the survey from North Louisiana, we conducted our own survey of Kiss Country listeners this morning and after taking scores of phone calls, I found out that I was right; in a sense. We did NOT have 76% of our listeners to agree with the governor, but it was nearly a dead even argument. 51% said this was a government overstep and didn't agree with the mandate, however 49% agreed with the governor and couldn't understand why others wouldn't just err on the side of caution and put the mask on.

Never, in a million years, would I have imagined that number to be so high. Guess it just goes to show that just when you think you know it all, something like this happens to show you that you don't know squat.