By Andy Grimm
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - The Republican U.S. senator who wants to become Louisiana's next governor has struggled to build a commanding lead against his opponents ahead of the state's primary vote on Saturday, according to polls and political experts.
David Vitter, who won two Senate races by wide margins, was seen as the clear front-runner when he launched his bid last spring to succeed Governor Bobby Jindal, who is barred from a third term and is running for the Republican presidential nomination.
But Vitter's popularity has eroded, with his campaign dogged by criticism over a 2007 prostitution scandal, his decision to sit out six of eight televised candidate debates and voter dissatisfaction with Jindal's leadership.
Recent polls show the senator running even with or slightly behind Democrat John Bel Edwards, the minority leader in Louisiana's House of Representatives. Republicans Scott Angelle, a member of the state's utility regulatory board, and Lieutenant Governor Jay Dardenne trail farther behind.
"People are approaching this vote with an 'oy vey,'" said G. Pearson (L:PSON) Cross, a political scientist at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
A mid-October poll by Baton Rouge TV station WAFB found nearly 40 percent of voters remained undecided only a few weeks out from Louisiana's so-called "jungle primary," in which candidates from all parties appear on the same ballot.
If no candidate wins a majority of votes, the top two finishers will face each other in a Nov. 21 runoff, a likely outcome given the apparent lack of voter enthusiasm in the race, analysts said.
Cross said voter turnout has declined as the state has turned more Republican and candidates have become less colorful in recent years.
"People in Louisiana are used to politics being this joyous theater, and that's changed with some of the recent candidates," Cross said. "There's just a lot less awareness and interest."
Republicans took control of all statewide offices last year, when Bill Cassidy beat incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu. Jindal won his second term in office in 2011 with a resounding 66 percent of the vote.
But support for the governor plummeted amid criticism that he has focused more on his campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination than on the state's budget woes.
Vitter's critics have reminded voters that he admitted in 2007 to "a very serious sin" after his phone number had appeared on the list of clients of so-called "D.C. Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey's escort agency.
Ed Chervenak, a political science professor at the University of New Orleans, said low turnout is the only certainty in the race.
"The problem may be that the best-known candidate has the most baggage, and most folks don't know much about the others," Chervenak said.