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**SNIP** Around February, speculation began circulating about the candidacy of Daniels, amid a “Draft Stormy” movement launched by a few overzealous political science students looking for an adult entertainer to run against Vitter. Their strategy was that Daniels’ mere presence in the race would draw more attention to the Senator’s extramarital activities. Daniels flattered by the attention, began speaking publicly to reporters, while the Louisiana Democratic Party began publicly distancing themselves from the efforts. Daniels for her part, maintained that she wanted Hustler publisher Larry Flynt to manage her campaign. **SNIP** Daniels told reporters that her campaign slogan was, “Stormy...

NEW ORLEANS — Vice President-elect Mike Pence traveled to Louisiana's largest city Saturday to endorse Republican John Kennedy for U.S. Senate — a last-dash visit ahead of the state's runoff election in one week. "I'm really here to say thanks, but we have one more race to win this year," Pence told a crowd of supporters from inside a New Orleans airport hangar. As the Indiana governor looked to capitalize on the GOP's victories this election, including capturing the White House, President-elect Donald Trump also gave Kennedy his stamp of approval via Twitter. "State Treasurer John Kennedy is my choice...

Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana slammed fellow Republican George Voinovich Wednesday for saying the GOP's problems stem from the fact that it is "being taken over by Southerners," calling the Ohio senator "a moderate, really wishy-washy." (SNIP) "We got too many Jim DeMints and Tom Coburns," Voinovich told the Columbus Dispatch Monday. "It's the Southerners…. "They get on TV and go 'errrr, errrrr . . .' People hear them and say, 'These people, they're Southerners,'" he said. "The party's being taken over by Southerners. What the hell have they got to do with Ohio?"

Mayor Mitch Landrieu had harsh words for David Vitter on Thursday (March 3) after the Republican senator blasted New Orleans for its sanctuary city policies when it comes to undocumented immigrants. (SNIP) "Like Donald Trump, David Vitter wants you to believe that all immigrants are criminals," Landrieu said in a statement. "The people of our city and state saw through this kind of divisive, race-baiting politics during Vitter's failed gubernatorial campaign."

The Gang of Eight comprehensive immigration reform bill passed the Senate after a series of votes in June 2013. Democrats, who controlled the Senate at the time, unanimously supported the bill, while most Republicans opposed it. The four Republicans on the gang - Marco Rubio, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Jeff Flake - of course voted for it, and also agreed with Democrats on a plan to kill almost all GOP amendments.Then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid allowed just a handful of amendments to reach the Senate floor. One, from Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, would have prohibited the legalization of illegal...

Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration has decided not to re-apply for a waiver that allows out-of-work residents to apply for food stamp benefits after they've been on the program for three months. But because Louisiana's unemployment rate is above the national average, Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards could decide to apply for the waiver once he takes office Jan. 11. Doing so could restore food stamp benefits, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to as many as 64,000 Louisianians who have been unable to find work. snip

Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards plans to issue an executive order to protect the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community from firing, discrimination and harassment as state employees and government contractors. Edwards' directive would cover state workers and government contractors in agencies and departments he oversees. But executive orders don't necessarily bind parts of state government outside the governor's control, such as the judiciary. The Edwards' transition team did not provide a timeline for when the order might be issued, but the Democrat will be sworn into office Jan. 11. The governor-elect told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune directly a few weeks...

By Marsha Shuler| mshuler@theadvocate.com Nov. 26, 2015; 6:25 p.m. On the campaign trial, Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards promised time and again that he would expand the rolls of Medicaid on his first day in office. His promise to reverse repeated rejections of expanded Medicaid by Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal and open the government health insurance program to more low-income workers was a cornerstone of the Democrat’s campaign. But legal realities have caused Edwards to back off, at least for the time being, while his incoming administration works through a legal glitch raised by the Legislature’s fiscal advisers. Edwards told reporters...

The outgoing RINO Lt. Governor Jay “Ephialtes” Dardenne just sat down with Baton Rouge talk show host Clay Young to discuss his future plans and the governor’s race. The interview was largely Jay Dardenne’s audition for Commissioner Of Administration. Young asked Dardenne if there was a deal between John Bel Edwards and him for his endorsement. Dardenne says that it didn’t come up and that he endorsed Edwards because he believed David Vitter would be a terrible governor. Dardenne says Vitter was too much of a Washington politician and he didn’t want the Washington style politics of division to come...

Governor-elect John Bel Edwards told Republican House leaders Tuesday afternoon that he backed New Orleans Rep. Walt Leger III, a fellow Democrat as Speaker of the House, Majority Leader Lance Harris said. The Republican majority in the Louisiana House would prefer one its members in the top leadership role and passed a resolution to that effect during a meeting in the State Capitol. The 61 GOP representatives in the 105-member Louisiana House met for several hours behind closed doors to discuss how to handle the incoming administration of a Democratic Party governor. Traditionally, Louisiana governors choose the leaders of each...

The answer is less than 24 hours after he was elected. John Bel Edwards tried to run an issue free campaign for governor. Instead, he made the election about David Vitter’s character. While he was busy destroying a good man, Edwards didn’t really go into his vision for Louisiana. Despite his best efforts though, he made some promises to the state. One of them was to hold two special sessions this coming year to deal with structural budget crisis the state is in. Here’s John Bel Edwards making the case via some questions posed on social media. Plans or priorities...

John Bel Edwards' alliances with teachers unions and conventional public school leaders are drawing concern that Louisiana's next governor will seek to revisit legislative battles over charter schools and private school tuition vouchers. In a sign of the strength of Edwards' ties to the unions, the Democrat's first speech since winning Saturday's runoff election was Monday (Nov. 23) at the Louisiana Federation of Teachers convention in Lake Charles. "I know the power and the promise of a public school education when it's done right and when you've got a good partner in the governor's office. Well, let me tell you...

It didn’t take long for Governor-elect John Bel Edwards to show his true colors. In fact, it only took about 12 hours after he was elected governor. The fresh air he was claimed to bring to Louisiana is now a whiff of the stench of Louisiana’s corrupt past. Here are the members of the transition team, according to the Times-Picayune. The transition team, which will operate from the Kirby Smith Hall on the campus of LSU, will include Laura Leach of Lake Charles; Mayor Jamie Mayo of Monroe; Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newel Normand; state Sen. Sharon Weston Broome, of Baton...

Governor-elect John Bel Edwards called expanding Medicaid "among the highest priorities" of his new administration, though he said Sunday (Nov. 22) he may not be able to approve an expanded program on Day One. Edwards has said for months that he would accept the expansion of Medicaid, which requires executive approval, in the early days of his administration. But he said new questions have been raised about a funding mechanism the Legislature finished building in the spring. There is "a difference of opinion" in interpretations of how the bill was drafted and passed, Edwards said. But he did not appear...

Democrat John Bel Edwards took a victory lap last night after winning Louisiana’s gubernatorial race by a wide margin. While things had looked pretty good for Republican Senator David Vitter a couple of months ago, in the end it really wasn’t even close. (New York Times) With a victory that defied political geography and near universal predictions from just months earlier, a previously little-known Democrat, State Representative John Bel Edwards, soundly defeated United States Senator David Vitter in a runoff election on Saturday to become the next governor of Louisiana.Mr. Edwards won 56 percent of the vote with virtually...

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,...

Republican David Vitter says he is not going to run again for the U.S. Senate after losing in an upset race for governor to Democrat John Bel Edwards. Vitter made the announcement during an appearance to campaign supporters in the New Orleans suburbs Saturday evening after it became apparent that he would not win the governor's race. Vitter, who has one year left in his second U.S. Senate term, told supporters that before entering the governor's race, he and his wife had decided that he would not seek another term in the Senate.

Early Results

Today, Louisianans are going to the polls to decide who will lead the state for the next four years. In what was arguably the state's most interesting primary elections since 1987, state Rep. John Bel Edwards and U.S. Sen. David Vitter ended up in the top two slots in the Oct. 24 primary election. Edwards finished in first place among the four gubernatorial candidates receiving votes in the double digits in that primary election, garnering 40 percent of the vote - almost double those of his nearest contender, U.S. Sen. David Vitter, who received 23 percent. Back in May a...

According to the newest state-wide poll of Louisiana taken Thursday, Republican gubernatorial candidate Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) 71% has inched to within just 4 points of his Democrat opponent, John Bel Edwards. Earlier in the month, Edwards had been handily beating Vitter by as much as +22 points. Proving once again why early voting is an appallingly dumb idea, while the Syrian refugee debate appears to be helping Vitter gain ground (he leads on this issue 40% to 36%), according to the Huffington Post, more than a quarter of a million votes have already been cast in Louisiana. Like almost...