Posted on 01/19/2010 6:34:23 PM PST by Clintonfatigued
U.S. Sen. David Vitter won't face a Republican primary challenge from Secretary of State Jay Dardenne, who ended months of speculation Tuesday by announcing that he won't enter the fall Senate race.
"After much consideration, I have decided not to seek the U.S. Senate seat this year," Dardenne said in a short statement. "My family and I thank the many Louisianians who have encouraged me to run, but I believe my role is to serve the people here in Baton Rouge rather than in Washington."
Dardenne's announcement leaves Democratic U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon as Vitter's main challenger for the seat. Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal also has said he doesn't intend to seek the Senate post.
(Excerpt) Read more at ksla.com ...
Vitter will be the Republican nominee. The Democrats cheer.
Why ? Vitter won’t lose.
Many said the same thing about Tim Hutchinson in 2002.
Except this isn’t Arkansas and this isn’t Tim Hutchinson. Hutchinson was facing a difficult race, with or without personal problems, and he also faced a difficult primary, nevermind coming from a state with a very weak GOP and an incompetent RINO Governor who shrank the party instead of growing it, and did nothing to help Hutchinson.
This is Louisiana, a different culture with a weak and declining Democrat party. If the Dems make Vitter’s peccadilloes front and center, it will blow up spectacularly in their faces. Vitter’s voting record is impeccable, and the majority of voters in LA know that and are forgiving of any mistakes he has made so long as they don’t have a personal impact on their lives.
You are mostly right about Mike Huckabee. He was an adequate steward of the state’s finances, but a total flop as a party leader. Very get-along, go-along, don’t rock the boat or expend political capital. I’m glad he won’t be a candidate. He has a lot of charm, but not much of a record.
Why I’m glad Melancon is running is that we’ll likely pick up his seat (which will offset the probable loss of Cao). I’ve never said I’m proud of Vitter with respect to his poor personal judgment, but I also pay attention to whether that has any bearing on the race and whether he has high negatives as a result, and that just hasn’t shown up so far. It would’ve taken a combination of bad voting by Vitter (think along the lines of Lindsey Graham) and sagging reelect numbers for me to call for Vitter to step down.
Replacing him with Dardenne, who may very well be more liberal, is just not something I could support, and even within the primary, Dardenne wasn’t likely to win, and if anything, was likely to cause more harm to Vitter going into the general election than the Dems were. I’m glad Dardenne looked at the numbers and realized he wasn’t going to beat Vitter and that it was simply better not to give the Dems ammo for November.
I will add conversely, though, I don’t support John Ensign’s reelection in NV, since I think those were far more serious allegations, although even now given the poisoned anti-Dem climate, he’s leading all potential Democrats even in a damaged condition, but they may change by 2012, and I do hope he steps aside.
I doubt I could give him much credit financially. IIRC, he raised taxes and fees more times than Bubba did (and Bubba became REALLY unpopular for doing that — Barone claimed it was that reason he lost in 1980, although I think it was a combo of issues, which included the anti-Carter climate, the disastrous mishandling of the Marielitos sent to Fort Chaffee which resulted in civilians with guns having to round them up when they broke loose, and the visceral dislike for Hillary Rodham (who refused to use “Clinton” as her last name) who spent the first two years as First Lady looking like an unkempt hippie).
Huckster’s decision to keep Clinton’s and Tucker’s people in a lot of jobs, refusing to grow the party beyond a small coterie of sycophants and bitterly opposing any other Republicans who wouldn’t pay fealty to him, was a disaster. It’s ironic the state GOP is growing now under Dem Gov. Beebe (not that Beebe wants it to happen) once Huckster was removed from power. Maybe not so ironic, since it was clear he was the greatest impediment to GOP growth starting around 2000, when the party was at its zenith in the modern era.
I’d venture a guess had Jim Guy Tucker remained as Governor, the GOP would probably have a majority of the federal delegation and would’ve been at over 40% of the legislature by the earlier part of this decade. Right now, we’re only at 28% of the House and 23% in the Senate (in the latter for which we haven’t gained a single solitary seat in a decade).
Melancon is not well supported and Vitter is very much appreciated for his solid voting record. We honestly don’t give a rats patooty about his long-forgotten (as far as we’re concerned) infidelities which have nothing whatsoever to do with the battles we are facing against an increasingly intrusive fed. government. Do I wish he had been faithful to his wife? Sure, but that’s really between him and his wife and him and God. His wife has obviously forgiven him and if his repentance was sincere, God has also. I’m far more interested in his solid conservative stance. We can’t afford to throw the baby out with the bathwater and Landrieu has betrayed us royally. Think we’ll vote in another one?? Not likely!!!
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