Posted on 11/22/2015 2:27:05 AM PST by markomalley
Democrat John Bel Edwards won the runoff election for Louisiana governor Saturday, defeating the once-heavy favorite, Republican David Vitter, and handing the Democrats their first statewide victory since 2008.
Edwards, a state lawmaker, will take over the office from term-limited Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal in January.
Voters' rejection of Vitter was a stunning turn of events for the U.S. senator, who has been a political powerhouse in the state for years and started his campaign nearly two years ago as the race's front-runner.
(Excerpt) Read more at gulflive.com ...
Precisely why Edwin Edwards invented the Jungle Runoff.
Don’t you think having to quote the bible in defense of your candidate is a sure sign that you have the wrong candidate?
Apparently his prostitute problem outweighed his political record to the voters. You are apparently the only one who is surprised.
He was the wrong guy. You don’t run a guy with a prostitute problem. It’s not that complicated.
Bill Clinton received a blow job from Monica while deploying troops overseas and voters said so what.
This wasn’t about morals. This was about slimeball politics.
Democrats suck.
Gotcha
I’m not surprised. I’ve been in politics to know you don’t win all the time. Much of the time, my candidates lose. But there is never a perfect candidate, ever.
Whenever you decide to run for office, though, I will send you money. Because I know there will be no issues whatsoever that a social and fiscal conservative like myself can support.
But until you do run, I’ll just have to make the best of whoever decides to run for office.
In the case of yesterday’s election, it was Vitter.
Their are no Blue dog dems. An obama clone just got elected and Louisiana will have to endure 4 years of lefty crap.
Now that a Rat is in the Governors mansion, the RINO’s may not be so willing to go along with further tax hikes.
I hope you’re right, but history seems to indicate RINOs like to spend OP (other people’s) money just as much as Democrats.
RESERVOIR KING NAMED AS JOHN BEL EDWARDS’ CHIEF OF STAFF
11/22/2015— 4:12 PM CDT
Governor-elect John Bel Edwards has named Ben Nevers as his chief of staff. He announced this at a press conference Sunday afternoon.
Edwards said that Nevers “has my complete confidence. I could not be happier with the decision that I have made and couldn’t be more pleased that Senator Nevers agreed to do this.”
Ben Nevers has taken positions and supported legislation that has come under fire over the years.
Years ago, we wrote about the ongoing controversy regarding man-made reservoirs in Louisiana. One of our concerns was with the Oak Grove community in Washington Parish, where homeowners were facing a government land grab to build the planned reservoir.
Senator Ben Nevers was among the architects of the “reservoir legislation” which enabled the government to take private property.
According to reports, there was a hearing back in 2005 where Nevers explained his position.
Senator Nevers testified that no one loved Washington Parish as much as he did, and how it hurt him to have to do things for the betterment of the parish that would displace his friends.
He went on to say that the reservoir was for much- needed potable water. He offered no evidence of the need for potable water; he just said that there was a need.
Though permits to build the reservoir have been denied, the Washington Parish Reservoir commission has not given up. This video shows a meeting of the commission in July, where the residents of the community confront the commission about the attempted land grab by the government to make way for the reservoir.
Nevers is a term- limited Senator who is leaving the Senate seat in district 12. Republican Beth Mizell is his successor, and she opposes the reservoir project. At a recent debate, Mizell said that “I am known in this parish as being anti- reservoir. I imagine the property that me and my husband worked so hard to build, and the farm that we hold dear, and I imagine that under water. The idea that a giant body of water right across the middle of the parish is a nightmare.”
(C) THE DEAD PELICAN 2016
This has nothing to do with anything but the party unable to control a candidate with a prostitute problem and convince him not to run. Vitter convinced himself he was viable. Edwards went after him on morality issues to which he was vulnerable.
You want to personalize this. It’s not about that. Vitter had a prostitute problem and upon being reminded of it however many thousands of times, the electoral decided not to elect vitter.
That’s why you don’t run a candidate with a prostitute problem.
No amount of castigating the voters changes the fact that vitter did himself in by having a prostitute problem.
Pointing that out politically isn’t claiming moral superiority. It’s bad politics to have run vitter for governor.
It will be bad if he tries to run for reelection now.
He can make his peace with God. I don’t care. Just do it outside of politics now that the people have spoken
I’ve got news for you: LA has a laissez-faire attitude on peccadilloes (so long as they’re not dead girl/live boy sort as Fast Eddie Edwards pointed out), so Vitter’s long-ago past indiscretion (already well known when he ran for Senator) had minimal impact. The state voted twice for Clinton despite his behavior.
When the incumbent party Governor has high disapprovals (Jindals were over 60% negative), that spreads to the same-party nominee. In almost every instance when that occurs, the incumbent party loses.
Had Jindal high approvals, Vitter would have handily won. Also keep in mind the RINO Establishment hates Vitter and tried to sandbag him from two directions, and add to that that of the two RINOs, Dardenne endorsed Edwards and Angelle gave the OK for his supporters and $$ people to back Edwards. This was a world-class RINO screw-over.
You must be confused about how someone becomes a candidate. The days of party machines dictating who does and doesn’t run don’t exist any more, and for sure it doesn’t here in Louisiana.
The candidate makes that decision. If someone doesn’t like who runs, then they can get off their ass and run themselves. That way, there will be no issues with the “lesser of two evils” excuse that so many FReepers use.
I don’t favor the open or “jungle” primary over a closed party primary, but I’m not a member of the legislature that gets to make that decision.
Vitter was the best of the lot that chose to run. It’s that simple.
“Vitter was the best of the lot that chose to run. It’s that simple.”
And he lost because he had a prostitute problem, It’s that simple.
I think we’ve gone full circle. You know why he lost, even if you refuse to acknowledge it. The voters would rather have a democrat without a prostitute problem than a republican with one. Vitter should have known better. But he didn’t know better than to get caught up with prostitutes, so why would he suddenly be struck with good judgment on running for governor? Now LA must endure a democrat because of a republicans prostitute problem.
No, Vitter lost because the Louisiana GOPe chose to undercut him and help a Democrat get elected, rather than a committed conservative.
.....AND the prostitutes. You can’t forget about the prostitutes.
You’re doing a fine job of reminding, so I don’t have to worry about that.
I think there is a distant kinship but not a real one; people in LA in many cases though likely think he is Edwin’s son.
Also Vitter has been in national office for only sixteen years. We’ve had people around much, much longer than he, such as F. Edward Hebert, one of his House predecessors, and Senators Long, Johnston, and Ellender.
I saw it coming. I’m glad that Vitter decided not to seek reelection.
Bobby Jindal’s unpopularity was a factor in this race. However, Vitter’s scandals became more immediate when he decided to become Governor rather than Senator. Also, Edwards scored with charges that Vitter missed votes to be serviced by hookers. Those claims were devastating to Vitter. Vitter only won in 2010 by riding the backlash against Obamacaare, which swept the South and Midwest that year.
Jeff Landry’s election as state AG is a good sign and Republicans won the down-ballot races. Congressman John Fleming seems to be the best potential candidate for Senate. He’s good on immigration issues. I hope he runs and wins.
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