Da winnas & da loozas (Clancy DuBos says Mary's loss kills brother Mitch)

Gambing ^ | December 7, 2014 | Clancy DuBos

[abb]

snip

DA WINNAS

1. The Louisiana GOP — The Republican Party has been steadily building strength in Louisiana since Dave Treen won the governor’s race in 1979 and Ronald Reagan won the White House a year later. It wasn’t always easy, but this year the GOP made electoral politics look easy with Congressman Bill Cassidy’s simple strategy of hanging President Barack Obama around incumbent U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu’s neck like a millstone. Landrieu was on the defensive from Day One and was never able to score a clean hit on Cassidy, though she certainly tried. The tide of anti-Obama sentiment among Louisiana voters was like a tsunami. In retrospect, even if Landrieu had run a perfect campaign, she could not have turned that tide. Anti-Obama voter outrage was so strong that it even changed the course of the District 1 Public Service Commission race, which had nothing to do with the President. Voters didn’t care; they were out to banish anyone tagged with the scarlet letter “O.”

2. David Vitter — Louisiana’s soon-to-be senior senator is now the undisputed kingpin of the state GOP, and his microphone-grab at Cassidy headquarters on Election Night drove home that point. Vitter was the architect of Cassidy’s “virtual” campaign against Landrieu. He recruited Cassidy, cleared the field of most other would-be Republican challengers, helped Cassidy raise money and lent one of his top aides to Cassidy as campaign manager. In many ways, Cassidy’s campaign was a trial run for Vitter’s gubernatorial bid next year. It proved (just as Vitter did in his 2010 re-election campaign) that a candidate with lots of money can run for a major statewide office without actually getting out and touching voters in person. That’s good news for a guy who could still be dogged by a sex scandal.

snip

DA LOOZAS

1. The Democratic Party — Southern populism is officially dead. Mary Landrieu and Edwin Edwards tried to give it a last hurrah, which is ironic considering they often fought one another in their heyday. Landrieu’s legendary clout — and her undisputed record of delivering for Louisiana in hard times — was no match for the virulent anti-Obama sentiment among white voters, who have deserted the Democratic Party in droves over the past 30 years. That bodes ill for Democrats seeking higher office in the statewide elections next year. For his part, Edwards lost his relevance when he entered federal prison more than a decade ago. The doddering Silver Zipper’s pathetic race for Congress in the 6th District was less a last hurrah than a political sideshow for a fawning national media that can’t let go of their favorite clichés about our food and our politics being so spicy.

2. Mitch Landrieu — The mayor may not want to admit it, but his sister’s defeat in the Senate race means he can forget about running for governor next year. If he does run, the only thing he’ll accomplish is guaranteeing the election of David Vitter. Like his sister, Mitch Landrieu will be easily tied to Barack Obama if he tries to run statewide next year. (The President endorsed the mayor’s re-election in January and will still be president — and unpopular — next autumn.) That should make it easy for the mayor to keep his campaign promise to serve out his second term.

[abb]

See rest of article at link. DuBos is often a screeching liberal, but he's been an astute observer of Louisiana politics for years, and his commentary is of value.

[Redbob]

Good find, I like the big-picture approach tying Mitch L into this as well.
Next question: when Vitter is elected governor, who’ll replace him in the U.S. Senate?

[abb]

Of interest to you.

[ObamahatesPACoal]

Vitter and RINO Governor Phil Bryant(R-MS) oppose illegal immigration.

Are Mitch and Rand going to push an amnesty puppet in Kentucky?

[Don Corleone]

So much for Ms. “Louisiana Purchase”.

[abb]

Next question: when Vitter is elected governor, who’ll replace him in the U.S. Senate?

Vitter is keeping his counsel on that. I hear that John Fleming (District 4 - Shreveport area) wants it badly. One would have to assume that John Kennedy's name (he's state treasurer) is in the mix. Of course Maness' name is thrown out here at FR, but a 14% vote on a statewide race ain't exactly a lot of clout.

That said, IMHO, Mitch Landrieu is the ONLY LA Dem left standing with the chops to challenge Vitter. That's why Mary's loss has serious implications.

[onona]

abb; I am happy for you, and happy for the election outcome. Prayers now for conservative leadership !

[joshua c]

“Congressman Bill Cassidy’s simple strategy of hanging President Barack Obama around incumbent U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu’s neck like a millstone.”

I like the optics. Every liberal should be photoshopped with a millstone around their neck with the Obama symbol on it.

[abb]

The real winners are the hard working, taxpaying people of Louisiana.

[SgtBob]

Clancy is savey when it comes to LA politics, and is spot on vis a vis Vitter vs Landrieu. Col Maness now has some name recognition, and campaign experience, AND a brass set for running the first time. I think he’ll throw his hat in the ring. What say y’all?

[Oldexpat]

The prototype for Miss Piggy has been broken. Now she can sign up as a lobbyist and make some money.

[abb]

If he wants it, he can get into the mix. What he will need to do is stay visible, be seen at public functions, write letters to the editor, tour around the state, keep his political organization viable - those sort of things.

If he goes underground and isn’t heard from for two years, then decides in early 2016 that he wants to run again for Senate, he likely won’t be successful.

[ASOC]

Please don’t make this all about “Obama” - it is not.

Obama would have been **powerless** without the full support of every ‘Rat politician in CONgress.

This was about the defeat of or at least trying to beat back the out of control liberalism/Socialism that is tearing this country apart, burying it in both massive debt and wave after wave of foreign invaders - not just from Mexico, but from all across the world.

Fundamental change indeed.

The guilty party? **Democrats** and Republicans that are ‘purists’.

I fear for my grandchildren, but at least they are willing to learn Spanish...

[deport]

How does the old clans of the past, Longs and Jones shake
out in LA politics today? If at all.

[Polyxene]

“Now she can sign up as a lobbyist and make some money.”

Mary Landrieu — the face of pork — the other white meat kind and the DC money kind.

[abb]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_H._Jones
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Long
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huey_Long

I guess one would have to say that those old political machine are gone or have been completely rearranged.

My Mother’s family - my grandfather and great-grandfather - were part of the Long machine, so goes the family history. They owned a general store in North Ascension parish and it was the area’s meeting place and hub of community activity. As a result, they enjoyed a bit of clout with the Longs. One of my great uncles was a state police lieutenant, when such jobs were only given out as political patronage.

Here’s from a history of the area that a cousin of mine wrote some years ago.

THE HISTORY OF THE HOPE VILLA and OAK GROVE COMMUNITIES
By Ira Paul Babin, II

“On frequent occasions during his campaign travels to and from New Orleans, Governor Huey P. Long included stops at the Webb store, and at Vinnie Dixon’s store in Hope Villa. One of the governor’s personal bodyguards was Murphy J. Webb, a resident of Oak Grove, and the son of the Webb store proprietor. During these stops, it was the bodyguard’s assignment to first enter the store to purchase cans of sardines, a red onion, a hunk of hoop cheese, a dime’s worth of soda crackers, and a Nehi orange soda pop—all favorite snacks of the governor.”

The Long factions were the agrarian, rural voters. Kind of the William Jennings Bryan types. The anti-Longs were the business types, the city voters, the white collar types.

You have to remember that black voters were not a significant factor in Louisiana elections until the mid 60s.

Today, that’s all gone.

Louisiana’s GOP is made up of people that would have been in the Democrat Party fifty or hundred years ago, I suspect. Small business, middle class, family oriented.

Core Louisiana Democrats are today a coalition of blacks, a smattering of white limousine liberals (college profs, etc), and the government deadhead class - teachers unions, courthouse crowds, etc.

But I love the history and politics. It’s in my blood, I guess. The Webb family first settled in the North Ascension area in the early 1800s. There was a Webb plantation where the Country Club of Louisiana is located, according to an old map I’ve seen.

[okie01]

The prototype for Miss Piggy has been broken. Now she can sign up as a lobbyist and make some money.

Lobbyists are hired and paid for their influence.

How much influence does Miss Piggy have if she can't round up more than 14 fellow Democrats to vote for her XL Pipeline bill? Or can't wheedle more than $0 from the Democrat Senate Campaign Committee for her run-off?

[Impy]

Thanks.

How did Obama effect the Public Service commissioners race? Wasn’t that R/R?

[deport]

Thanks much for your trip back into history. Those days are long gone basically except
for history writings and a few that truly go back to those times.

My family comes from Southwest LA and would have been on the opposite side of yours in
that they were Jones backers. In those days they were all democrats but different factions.
I personally had some connection with Bob Jones in years past when he was in the LA Legislature.
He then changed to the GOP but never ran again for office after his defeat by Edwin Edwards
in the governorship race.

Thanks for sharing and take care.

[abb]

I didn’t follow that race closely, as it was in another district.

Here’s what Jeremy Alford wrote. A liberal political writer to be sure, but often the source of good information.

-Public Service Commission District 1: This race will decide the ideological majority on the board. Incumbent PSC Chairman Eric Skrmetta won 37 percent of the vote in the primary, one point behind Forest Bradley Wright. The challenger did a much better job of defining the chairman - hitting him for taking money from the companies he regulates - than the other way around. But Skrmetta has hit back, linking Wright to his Democratic roots and President Barack Obama. It has been a hot race, with an ongoing court battle over a PAC’s commercial, questionable mailers, a review of the chairman’s stock trades, an arson investigation and more. If the primary vote is any indication, this could be a tough one for Skrmetta, unless his strategy to link Wright to Obama works.

Here’s the Hayride’s take.

http://thehayride.com/2014/12/it-is-deeply-deeply-gratifying-to-see-that-eric-skrmetta-won-re-election-tonight/

It Is Deeply, Deeply Gratifying To See That Eric Skrmetta Won Re-Election Tonight…