Free Republic

Like other remaining Democratic candidates around the country, U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu knows she must increase her support among black and white females to emerge victorious on Dec. 6. That’s why Norma Jane Sabiston, Kristin Palmer, Angele Wilson and others are again reaching out to 5,000 key women supporters statewide to build Mary’s Army, highly committed grassroots warriors who will knock doors and work phones non-stop for the next three weeks. Armed with pink t-shirts and lists of likely voters, these women clearly understand the campaign’s success rests largely on their ability to persuade voters one person at a time....

The Republican unity tour with former rivals Rep. Bill Cassidy and Rob Maness will continue Saturday (Nov. 15) afternoon with a rally featuring the two of them, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson. Maness drew 14 percent of the vote in the primary, and Cassidy needs that to defeat Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu. Though Palin and Robertson are sometimes controversial figures outside the most conservative circles, political observers believe Cassidy is doing the right thing by aligning himself with the right wing of the party to earn that support. LSU political scientist Robert Hogan said...

Do you remember the Louisiana Senate runoff election of December 1996? Conservative Woody Jenkins sure does. He was the Republican Senate candidate who got mugged out of a Senate seat by Mary Landrieu. Flashback to 18 years ago — reporting in the December 23, 1996, and February 10, 1997, issues of National Review — Rich Lowry tells the story of how Mary Landrieu won ‘The Big Sleazy’ Senate runoff election of 1996. Now just 2 1/2 weeks away from the the 2014 Louisiana Senate runoff, Lowry’s investigative reports from nearly two decades ago are a sober reminder of what can...

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 519 (Republicans in roman; Democrats in italic ; Independents underlined ) H R 5682 RECORDED VOTE 14-Nov-2014 12:52 PM QUESTION: On Passage BILL TITLE: To approve the Keystone XL Pipeline … … … … … 221 … 1 11 Democratic 31 161 … 9 Independent … … … … TOTALS 252 161 1 20 ---- AYES 252 --- Aderholt Amodei Bachmann Bachus Barr Barrow (GA) Benishek Bentivolio Bilirakis Bishop (GA) Bishop (UT) Black Blackburn Boustany Brady (PA) Brady (TX) Brat Bridenstine Brooks (AL) Brooks (IN) Broun (GA) Buchanan Bucshon Burgess Byrne Calvert Camp Capito...

A new analysis by a leading MIT economist provides new ammunition for Democrats as the Senate begins formally debating the historic health-reform bill being pushed by President Barack Obama. The report concludes that under the Senate’s health-reform bill, Americans buying individual coverage will pay less than they do for today's typical individual market coverage, and would be protected from high out-of-pocket costs. So Democrats will argue that under the Senate bill, Americans would pay less for more. The new document arms Democrats with a response to the contention of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that the bill would mean...

Poll commissioned by GOP candidate's campaign shows massive advantage leading up to Dec. 6 runoff Win by GOP Rep. Bill Cassidy would bring total Republican pickup to a whopping 10 seats Landrieu is hoping a long-awaited vote on the Keystone XL pipeline will improve her fortunes Poll was leaked in Washington to send a message to energy lobbyists who think she can prevail Survey is an 'automated' phone poll that Landrieu's campaign considers less credible than traditional surveys conducted by voice 'Her campaign is running on fumes,' the pollster told MailOnline Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu is trailing her Republican challenger...

We’ve talked in the past about John Diez, the Prairieville-based polling guru of Magellan Strategies Baton Rouge, and the solid reputation his firm has put togther among politicos around the state. What our readers might not know is that Diez, who did the internal polling for the Garret Graves campaign, had a frighteningly-accurate forecast of the 6th District race a week before election night. Diez had that race as follows: Edwards 29 (finished with 30) Graves 24 (finished with 27) Dietzel 13 (finished with 14) Claitor 10 (finished with 10) Whitney 6 (finished with 7) That’s what’s known as one...

(CNN) -- As Rep. Bill Cassidy wages a runoff campaign against Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu, he'll get some in-person support this weekend from Sarah Palin and "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson.

Sarah Palin did not support Rep. Bill Cassidy during Louisiana’s Senate jungle primary last week. But now that it’s between Cassidy and Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu, the former Alaska governor is changing her tune. The 2008 vice-presidential nominee plans to appear alongside Cassidy, “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson and defeated conservative Senate candidate Rob Maness at a GOP unity rally on Saturday afternoon in Monroe, according to a source familiar with the event. The Palin visit follows a Monday event with Maness, Cassidy and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in Baton Rouge. Palin supported Maness in the primary and predicted that...

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana) took to the Senate floor this afternoon to push for the Keystone XL pipeline. "This has been a project that has lingered far too long," she said. "It is clearly supported by 60 or more members of this body. It is a piece of legislation that has been endorsed by the new Majority Leader, to-be Majority Leader, is a cosponsor and a leading cosponsor of the legislation." "I believe it is time to act," Landrieu said. "I believe that we should take the new Majority Leader at his word and stop blocking legislation that is broadly...

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) faced an uphill fight for reelection from the outset. Polling averages had her leading last week's free-for-all jungle primary forever, but have consistently also shown that Landrieu would lose to Republican Bill Cassidy if the race came down to the two of them. Let's figure out how turnout will change. The answer is: It will go down. In 2012, a House run-off race saw a 69 percent drop in turnout. But that was from a presidential race. If you figure that turnout last week was only 73 percent of 2012 turnout statewide, we can assume that...

Six days ago, it was reported the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee wouldn’t be lending any more support to Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) leading up to her December 6 runoff election against Republican opponent Bill Cassidy, as the DSCC has canceled its advertising reservations in the state. However, it appears that her problems extend well beyond them, as even more outside groups have appeared to jump ship — at least for the time being. FEC filings from the past week show that the sitting senator hasn’t received one independent donation from any outside group either in support of her re-election or...

How desperate are Democrats to salvage the one Senate seat they still haven’t quite lost in the midterm elections? Desperate enough to anger their environmental-progressive base and threaten their ability to compete in 2016? It may come down to that question in the lame-duck Senate over the last few days of the Democratic majority. The Washington Post reports that Harry Reid and his caucus may try rescuing Mary Landrieu by passing an approval of the Keystone XL pipeline project, a key policy goal for Republicans and a big economic issue in Louisiana: Senate Democrats are working on plans to...

Senate Democrats are working on plans to hold a vote authorizing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline -- approval that Democrats believe might bolster the chances of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who faces a tough runoff election next month. It was not immediately clear Tuesday night whether Republicans would consent to proceeding with such a vote during the lame-duck session that begins on Wednesday -- especially given the high stakes surrounding Landrieu's reelection race. Such a move would also draw howls from the environmental movement who had hoped that President Obama would resolve a years-long dispute over a long-awaited energy...

Just as the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee decided last week to scrap plans for its television ads for U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu’s re-election bid, the Republican National Committee announced that it was sending an extra 200+ people to the state to help Bill Cassidy, following the Nov. 4 primary. Cassidy is leading most polls three weeks out from the Dec. 6 primary. “We predicted the turnout within a couple hundred votes so we feel really good about how well we know these voters,” RNC spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski told Politico.com. “We are literally buying up hotels and car rentals and sending...

Republicans of every stripe staged a united front to help Rep. Bill Cassidy in his quest to unseat Sen. Mary Landrieu, the last statewide elected Democrat, during a rally Monday at Huey's Bar in downtown Baton Rouge. The rally was headlined by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Rob Maness, a sign the far-right is ready to embrace Cassidy. Paul echoed the Republican theme of the 2014 midterms by denouncing President Barack Obama's positions and the Democrats that support them. He spoke at length about Obama and called Landrieu a rubber stamp for his policies. Perhaps more important for Cassidy than...

For months, Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's re-election campaign was based on one simple pitch: Elect me to a fourth term, and I'll chair the Senate Energy Committee, and that means money, money, money for Louisiana. Landrieu's case for re-election was all about clout. That was then. Now, as Landrieu heads to a Dec. 6 runoff with Republican challenger Rep. Bill Cassidy, Democrats have already lost control of the Senate — a reality that won't be affected by the outcome of the runoff. So while Landrieu still has a chance to win, one thing is absolutely certain: She will not...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)One last Campaign 2014 maneuver and several intriguing post-election shifts and calculations made for a fun trip around the table. 1. New ground troops -- in Louisiana There is one more round in the 2014 election, and Republicans are heavily favored: the Louisiana runoff for the U.S. Senate between Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu and GOP Rep. Bill Cassidy. So put this one in the "taking nothing for granted" file: A GOP source tells CNN the Republican National Committee is sending in 350 field workers to help with the December 6 get-out-the-vote effort. Democrats, too, say they will bolster their staff...

When your main campaign sales pitch is based on your “clout,” and you lose the basis of that clout, then your campaign is probably a goner. For that and other reasons, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu has almost no remaining path to re-election. Landrieu’s self-proclaimed clout as chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Energy always was rather illusory. Now, with Republicans running the Senate and a Democratic president wholly antagonistic to Louisiana economic interests, Democratic loyalist Landrieu will be doubly blocked from influence on behalf of the state. Landrieu will keep trying to “localize” the election by ginning up irrelevant issues...

**SNIP** When this hospital needed a champion to build and rebuild, literally out of the rubble of Katrina and Rita, ... where was Bill? In the video found here, Landrieu trumpets her own record, referring to herself in the third person, while damning Cassidy as “wishy-washy, unreliable, undependable, not sure who he is, not sure who he was, and not sure who he wants to be.” It would have made for great optics and might have helped her in a runoff pundits are predicting she will lose if Cassidy hadn't tweeted back an answer to her question: “Mary Landrieu wants...