Posted on 12/06/2014 4:12:42 PM PST by goldstategop
LA Polls close at 8:00 PM CST - in one hour.
Post all updates here.
Man you’re sure right about that, Syncro! I don’t trust her at all.
Odds and ends
The only 2 Senate seats not to have elected a Republican since the 17th amendment are now in ours hands (this one and the one in Montana) as is one of the 2 WV seats, no other state had gone longer without a GOP Senator. The longest rat held seat is now the RI Seat held by Jack Reed, last elected a Republican in 1930. #2 is the seat held by the dyke in Wisconsin, rat held since they won the special election to replace the late Joe McCarthy. Joe’s ghost is pissed at Tommy Thompson for blowing that race.
5 incumbent rats defeated, the first time since 1980 that we’ve got more than 2 in any single election.
She might prefer K Street's food tasting for lobbyists:
54 R 44 D 2 I
Good thread Goldy, thanks for posting! B^)
When the GOP takes over next month, Murkowski will move from “ranking” to Chairman.
You’re welcome.
Will the Democrats learn anything from their defeat?
Of course not... they still think Obamacare was the greatest thing to happen to happen to them since buttered bread.
When they believe they’re never wrong, that shows you how out of touch with reality they are.
http://theadvocate.com/news/11029663-123/bill-cassidy-takes-an-early
Bill Cassidy wins U.S. Senate; Mary Landrieu concedes
capitol news bureau
Finishing his speech by saying “Boom!” U.S Rep. Bill Cassidy defeated three-term incumbent Mary Landrieu to become Louisiana’s second Republican in the U.S. Senate.
With 3,897 of the state’s 3,931 precincts reporting, Cassidy, a Republican from Baton Rouge, had 702,087 voters or 56.78 percent of those cast. Three-term incumbent U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat from New Orleans, had 534,331 votes tallied.
Cassidy told his supporters that the vote showed the country’s voters want to go in the conservative direction. “Where we the people have the power and not the federal government,” Cassidy said.
Cassidy mentioned that volunteers came in from all over the country. “This was an American victory,” he said.
Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter, now the state’s senior sentator, received special mention from Cassidy for his help.
In her concession speech, Landrieu thanked her supporters for being at her side fighting for the people of Louisiana.
“Where I come from, as you can tell a little bit with this family, there is no quit,” Landrieu said. “We may not have won tonight, but we have certainly won some extraordinary victories.”
Landrieu said the fight was not over on healthcare. “We have to have a healthy workforce,” she said, quoting President Theodore Roosevelt and noting she has been in the arena for 34 years.
“The joy has been in the fight,” Landrieu said. “Louisiana will always be worth fighting for.”
The Associated Press called the race for Cassidy at 8:25 p.m.
Gov. Bobby Jindal then tweeted “It’s about time. We’ve finally retired Mary Landrieu.”
Landrieu is the last Democratic senator in the Deep South and is the last Democrat to have been elected statewide in Louisiana.
The campaign was the most expensive in Louisiana history, with the candidates combining to raise more than $32 million in direct contributions. Millions more were spent by outside political groups who filled the airwaves with strident, mostly negative advertisements.
Landrieu, 58, is regarded as one of the most conservative — or least liberal — Democrats in the Senate. She campaigned vigorously in an effort to shift the focus away from President Barack Obama, emphasizing her record of winning federal benefits for the state, including projects, grants and policies.
Landrieu touted the influence in the Senate earned by her seniority, leading with her ascension early this year to the chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, with is oversight of the oil and gas industry that is central to the Louisiana economy — and which Landrieu has long championed. But the Republican wins in other states Nov. 4 meant she would lose her chairmanship of the committee in the 2015-16 Senate — and with it, much of her clout.
Landrieu was forced to play defense early in the campaign, when her effective relocation with her family to Washington after her first election, in 1996, drew national publicity. More damaging were disclosures that she spent money from her official, taxpayer-financed Senate office account to charter planes for campaign trips, in violation of Senate rules. She ultimately paid back to the U.S. Treasury from her campaign funds more than $30,000, after her internal investigation uncovered dozens of wrongful billings dating back to 2002 that she attributed to “bookkeeping errors.” But Republicans stuck her with an “Air Mary” label right up to the end.
In the closing weeks of the campaign, Landrieu fired back at Cassidy as “Dr. Double-Dip” — a term Cassidy himself interjected as a rueful comment during their last televised debate.
After his election to Congress in 2009, Cassidy worked part-time for the LSU health system until taking a leave of absence this year for the Senate campaign, and time sheets he filled out — and that surfaced in recent weeks — appeared to be incomplete and suggested possible discrepancies with his recorded activities in the House in Washington. Landrieu accused him of potentially committing payroll fraud. Cassidy denied any impropriety, and for the Landrieu campaign, the would-be scandal was too little, too late.
Cassidy ran a low-key, risk-adverse campaign — strikingly so, for a challenger to a three-term incumbent — on the apparent calculation that in a year that favored Republicans, he need only avoid mistakes to win. In a speech Friday — the first day he appeared in public in the campaign’s final week — he credited Vitter for providing important advice and guidance to his candidacy.
In that appearance, Cassidy turned into a call-and-response chant the overriding theme of his challenge to Landrieu: that she supports Democratic President Obama “97 percent of the time!” based on her Senate voting record and Obama’s agenda. That was a tune played by Republican Senate candidates in many states, as they sought to capitalize on the president’s low approval ratings and widespread dissatisfaction with his signature legislative achievement, the 2010 Affordable Care Act — conveniently, for Republican purposes, known as Obamacare.
The result was that, with Cassidy’s win, Republicans gained nine seats in the Senate, turning a 55-45 deficit in the current Congress to a 54-46 majority in the one taking office in January. That outcome fit a longstanding pattern of congressional gains in midterm elections in a president’s second term by the party on the other side of the partisan divide from the president.
Landrieu, 58, is regarded as one of the most conservative — or least liberal — Democrats in the Senate. She campaigned vigorously in an effort to shift the focus away from Obama, emphasizing her record of winning federal benefits for the state, including projects, grants and policies.
Landrieu touted the influence in the Senate earned by her seniority, leading with her ascension early this year to the chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, with is oversight of the oil and gas industry that is central to the Louisiana economy — and which Landrieu has long championed. But the Republican wins in other states Nov. 4 meant she would lose her chairmanship of the committee in the 2015-16 Senate — and with it, much of her clout.
Landrieu was forced to play defense early in the campaign, when her effective relocation with her family to Washington after her first election, in 1996, drew national publicity. More damaging were disclosures that she spent money from her official, taxpayer-financed Senate office account to charter planes for campaign trips, in violation of Senate rules. She ultimately paid back to the U.S. Treasury from her campaign funds more than $30,000, after her internal investigation uncovered dozens of wrongful billings dating back to 2002 that she attributed to “bookkeeping errors.” But Republicans stuck her with an “Air Mary” label right up to the end.
In the closing weeks of the campaign, Landrieu fired back at Cassidy as “Dr. Double-Dip” — a term Cassidy himself interjected as a rueful comment during their last televised debate. After his election to Congress in 2009, Cassidy worked part-time for the LSU health system until taking a leave of absence this year for the Senate campaign, and time sheets he filled out — and that surfaced in recent weeks — appeared to be incomplete and suggested possible discrepancies with his recorded activities in the House in Washington. Landrieu accused him of potentially committing payroll fraud. Cassidy denied any impropriety, and for the Landrieu campaign, the would-be scandal was too little, too late.
The handwriting was on the wall for Landrieu after Nov. 4, and not just because Republican victories nationwide robbed her of her seniority-and-influence argument, nor because they demonstrated the potency of the anti-Obama message with a typical low-turnout midterm electorate that includes fewer minorities, young people and other traditional Democratic constituencies than in a presidential-election year.
Under Louisiana’s unique election system, all Senate candidates, regardless of party, appeared on the same ballot Nov. 4, with the Dec. 6 runoff between the top two finishers required if none of the eight contenders won office in the first round by capturing a majority of that vote. Landrieu topped the field, but with just 41 percent of the vote, and with Cassidy right on her heels. The killer for Landrieu was that a second Republican — retired Air Force Col. Rob Maness, of Madisonville — pulled down 14 percent of the vote running as a tea-party candidate to Cassidy’s right, and the combined Republican vote equaled well over half the total.
That left Cassidy a straightforward path to victory in the runoff, via unification of the Republican vote behind him. Maness endorsed Cassidy a few days after Nov. 4 and joined him at campaign appearances, followed by such national tea-party icons as Sarah Palin, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, of Kentucky, and Phil Robertson, of “Duck Dynasty” reality television fame. More mainstream Republicans came to the state to campaign for Cassidy, too, such as Texas Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, of Florida.
Cassidy had received considerable backing before Nov. 4 in spending by national Republican organizations and outside groups on political advertising, and that continued in full force up to the runoff. Landrieu was strongly supported by the Democratic and progressive counterparts of those groups before Nov. 4 — but whey they saw the results, they all but abandoned her.
In the end, too many planets aligned against Landrieu. A key factor was the dramatic erosion in her support among white voters. In 2008, according to exit polls, one in three white voters supported her, and she ran 12 percentage points ahead of Obama in Louisiana. This year, one in six white voters chose Landrieu. Even with near-unanimous support from black voters, that wasn’t enough.
Check back later with The Advocate for more details.
Follow Gregory Roberts on Twitter @GregRobertsDC. Follow Elizabeth Crisp on Twitter @elizabethcrisp. For more coverage of the Louisiana Legislature, follow our Politics blog at http://blogs.theadvocate.com/politicsblog .
One of my favorite restaurants in DC; she can really go and pig out there.
Extrapolating out the 23% of precincts out in Orleans, the race should finish about 56-44 Cassidy, which basically is the same spread of Republican plus Libertarian vs. Democrat votes in the jungle primary.
“Bill” Cassidy (R) 56.73% 709955
Mary L. Landrieu (D) 43.27% 541510
Landrieu (D): 43.27% (541,510 votes)
Cassidy (R): 56.73% (709,955 votes)
3,934 of 4,018 Precincts Reporting (1,251,465 votes
Just waiting on Orleans. Assuming the remaining 23% precincts go 84/16 Landrieu, it should end 56-44.
“Bill” Cassidy (R) 55.94% 712330
Mary L. Landrieu (D) 44.06% 561099
Final
http://theadvocate.com/home/10999145-125/newcomer-graves-trounces-edwards
Newcomer Graves trounces Edwards
Will Sentell| wsentell@theadvocate.com
Dec. 06, 2014
Republican Garret Graves, who has never held elected office, won the 6th Congressional District race Saturday by trouncing Democrat Edwin Edwards, a former four-term governor who tried a comeback after nearly a decade in prison.
Graves collected 139,194 votes, or 62 percent, to 83,773 votes for Edwards, or 38 percent.
“Tonight I promise I will honor your trust,” Graves, 42, told cheering supporters at a downtown Baton Rouge restaurant.
“I tell you right now I am going to stick to my guns but I need your help,” he said.
Edwards, 87, took the podium shortly after 9 p.m. to concede. “Turn out the light, the party’s over,” he told supporters.
More On This Topic
Advocate staff file photo by Travis Spradling — In this March 17, 2014, file photo, former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards speaks at the Baton Rouge Press Club in Baton Rouge, La. With enthusiasm and vigor that belie his 87 years, Edwards is running for Congress in south Louisiana in what would be his second political resurrection.
“I’m not going to retire,” Edwards said but also announced, “I will not ever run for public office again.”
“It’s not the end of the world for me,” he said of the lopsided loss.
The defeat ends the up-and-down political career of Edwards, 60 years after he won his first election in a race for the Crowley City Council.
Graves and Edwards squared off in Saturday’s runoff election after they emerged as the leading vote-getters in the 12-person primary field on Nov. 4.
Edwards finished first in that contest, with 30 percent of the vote compared to 27 percent for Graves.
His primary win was fueled by his base of loyal supporters from traditional Democrats and, more importantly, by an inordinate number of GOP contenders who divided 64 percent of the initial vote.
But the 6th District is considered one of the most GOP-leaning in the nation, which meant that the ex-governor always faced a massive challenge in the runoff to get to Congress.
“It is a safe Republican district,” said Albert Samuels, chairman of the political science and criminal justice departments at Southern University,
Graves jumped to a huge lead from when the initial returns were reported and gave his victory speech barely an hour after the polls closed.
The Republican collected nearly 60 percent of the vote in East Baton Rouge Parish, 72 percent in Ascension Parish and 76 percent in Livingston Parish.
He carried all but Iberville and Pointe Coupee parishes in the 13-parish district.
About 46 percent of registered voters turned out for Saturday’s runoff, down from 55 percent in the primary last month.
Robert Hogan, a professor of political science at LSU, said Louisiana’s GOP-dominated Legislature solidified the district for Republicans when boundaries were redrawn in 2010.
“All he has to do is act like a congressman, and things are going to go his way without any difficulty,” Hogan said two days before the ballots were cast.
Even before Saturday’s balloting, Graves was believed to have already landed his U.S. House committee assignments — Transportation and Natural Resources.
The 6th district extends from southeast Baton Rouge to the suburbs west of New Orleans and through the bayou communities into parts of Houma.
It was open this time because 6th District U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy opted to challenge U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La, a challenge that Cassidy won handily.
The 6th district race drew national attention, mostly because of the presence of Edwards, who served nearly a decade in federal prison after being convicted of racketeering.
His career included three terms in Congress — representing the old 7th Congressional District — followed by 16 years as governor over three decades.
Graves portrayed himself as a newcomer to elected politics but with enough government experience to get things done in Washington.
He is a former aide to Gov. Bobby Jindal and, most notably, oversaw the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.
Edwards presented himself as a familiar figure to voters, political warts and all, and one who offered a moderate approach to getting things done in the GOP-dominated U.S. House.
Joshua Stockley, associate professor of political science at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, said the former governor faced many of the same problems as Democrats nationally — a point that Edwards echoed in his concession statement.
“The most significant aspect of the electorate in 2014 is the unpopularity of President Barrack Obama,” Stockley said.
Stockley said Edwards’ prison record, white voters fleeing the Democrat Party in the South and an economic recovery that many voters have trouble seeing also worked against his bid for an upset.
The contest featured sharp differences on key issues.
Graves said he opposed a hike in the minimum wage.
Edwards said he favored a gradual increase to $10.20 per hour, up from $7.25 per hour now.
Graves said he backs the traditional definition of marriage — one man and one woman.
Edwards said he did, too, but also backs same-sex civil unions with the financial benefits that married couples enjoy.
Graves blasted the 2010 Affordable Care Act — widely known as “Obamacare” — and said it should be replaced with a law that protects patients’ relationships with their doctors, allows for more investment in health savings accounts and allows consumers to keep their coverage when they change jobs.
Edwards said good parts of the law should be retained and others adjusted.
The runoff was a low-key affair with just one debate.
Graves’ campaign fundraising and spending far out-distanced that of Edwards — $1.4 million to $385,000 as of the latest federal reports. Graves continued a steady diet of television ads throughout the runoff while Edwards only went on the air in the final days. The Edwards ads attempted to tie Graves to the unpopular policies of his former boss Jindal and alleged that relatives benefited financially through contracts during his state government tenure.
Just before Saturday’s vote, Graves-financed campaign fliers detailed Edwards’ federal conviction, said he had a “legacy of scandals and corruption” and blamed him for “failed policies that have placed Louisiana at the bottom of every good list and at the top of every bad list.”
Marsha Shuler, of The Advocate’s Capitol news bureau, contributed to this report. Follow Will Sentell on Twitter @WillSentell. Follow Marsha Shuler on Twitter @MarshaShulerCNB.
Andrea Gallo @aegallo
Bottom line for #LASen: Cassidy wins. But Landrieu held onto #BatonRouge (52.71%) and #Nola (84.87%). Will be interested to get demographics
Yep Cassidy +12.
If you add up the jungle primary, the Republican + Libertarian vote was 56.7%, the Democrat vote was 43.4%. The runoff wasn’t that far from that result.
95-96% of blacks voted for her. She got around 25% of the white vote which is why the election was a good deal closer than it appeared.
But it wasn’t enough to return her to Washington D.C for a fourth term.
Done.
Teacher's union and other assorted government deadheads.
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