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Landrieu May Help Some GOP Senators with Re-Election

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Former Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) plans to spend some of the nearly $150,000 left in her campaign fund to help former Senate colleagues run for re-election, the Shreveport Times reports.

Landrieu said she also will contribute some leftover campaign money to Republicans: “I’m not opposed to helping one or two of my Republican friends that have helped Louisiana — if they ask. They haven’t asked yet.”

She specifically named Rob Portman of Ohio, who is up for re-election next year, and Susan Collins of Maine, who is up in 2020.

Landrieu Joins Lobbying Firm

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Former Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) is becoming a lobbyist, the New Orleans Times Picayune reports.

“Former senators are barred from lobbying their former colleagues for two years after the end of their congressional careers. For Landrieu, that means she can’t lobby colleagues until January, 2017. But she can lobby members of the executive branch, and is free to provide Van Ness Feldman clients with strategic advice.”

Landrieu Says She Won’t Run Again

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Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) “pretty much dismissed any notion that she would run again for governor, the Senate or any other public office,” Politico reports.

Said Landrieu: “Oh Lord, no. Well, let me say, I’m not going to say a definite ‘no’ about any of those two. I’ve been trained to never say no. But it is highly, highly unlikely.”

An Era of Parliamentary Elections in the U.S.

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Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-LA) defeat “is another reminder we have entered a period of parliamentary elections, where the parties stand for starkly different ideological agendas and where ticket-splitting, which follows from individual evaluations apart from party, is relatively rare,” Stu Rothenberg reports.

“In the end, the ‘Landrieu brand’ in Louisiana did not matter any more than the Pryor brand mattered in Arkansas or the Begich brand mattered in Alaska. Party labels mattered far more than the individual names of the candidates. Voters in all three states saw the incumbents’ Democratic label, and that made their decisions easy.”

Cassidy Isn’t Even Campaigning Anymore

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“Here’s how lopsided Louisiana’s Senate runoff is: Bill Cassidy is so far ahead that he’s not in the state campaigning. Two days before the election,” Politico reports.

“While Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu hustles across the Bayou State ahead of Saturday’s runoff, the Republican congressman is in Washington this week, voting on legislation and debating how to keep the government from shutting down. His press operation appears to be nonexistent.”

Roll Call: 3 things to know about the Louisiana Senate runoff

Landrieu Slaps Senator Who’s Helping Her

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Beleaguered Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) warned Louisiana voters that her defeat would elevate an advocate of “windmills” to a powerful position on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.

Said Landrieu: “If I don’t get back there as a senior member of the committee, we’re gonna have a woman who I like very much (but) I’m not sure Louisiana is going to think very much of a senator from Washington state who’s all for windmills and alternative energy, and doesn’t support the oil and gas industry.”

“She was speaking about Democratic colleague Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), who just then was sending out an email appeal to raise money for Landrieu.”

Landrieu Says Democrats Abandoned Her

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Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) “lobbed a barb at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Tuesday, saying they effectively abandoned her after the Nov. 4 midterm election,” the Washington Post reports.

Said Landrieu: “I am extremely disappointed in the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. I’ve said that. You know, they just walked away from this race.”

Quote of the Day

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“Short of treason by Cassidy in the next 72 hours, I just don’t see it. The issue is she voted with Barack Obama. Whether you like it or not it’s the big issue that’s killing her.”

— Pollster Bernie Pinsonat, quoted by the Daily Beast, on Sen. Mary Landrieu’s chances to win Louisina’s U.S. Senate runoff on Saturday.

Landrieu Ad Claims Obama Will Be Impeached

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A new radio ad for Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) features Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) saying Republicans will impeach President Obama if Bill Cassidy (R) wins the U.S. Senate runoff on Saturday, BuzzFeed reports.

[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]Landrieu, of course, says she “approves this message.” [/speech_bubble]

Early Voting Shows Bad News for Mary Landrieu

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Bloomberg: “Landrieu is struggling through the final days of the runoff election, set for Dec. 6. Early balloting trends suggest a spike in interest among white voters and Republicans, while blacks—who nearly universally support the incumbent—are proportionally making up a smaller part of the vote. The first four days of voting in Louisiana show that whites made up about 72 percent of the early electorate. That’s above the 65 percent of whites who voted early before the Nov. 4 election.”

Democrats Have Given Up on Landrieu

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Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) “is running out of ways to win her runoff in Louisiana next month,” National Journal reports.

“At this point, her party isn’t swooping in to save the day: National Democrats have pulled the plug on her race. With roughly $10 million in debt from the 2014 election cycle and a pile of losses from Arkansas to Colorado, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee canceled roughly $2 million in television advertising spots it had reserved when Landrieu’s runoff race was still seen as competitive or possibly the deciding race for control of the Senate.”

[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]Landrieu is the last Democratic senator in the Deep South. It may be quite a while before there’s another one.[/speech_bubble]

Cassidy Way Ahead in Louisiana Runoff

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A new Rassmussen survey in Louisiana finds Bill Cassidy (R) leads Sen. Mary Landriue (D) by 15 points in their U.S. Senate runoff, 56% to 41%.

[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]It’s increasingly hard to see how the passage of the Keystone XL pipeline bill was ever going to save Landrieu.[/speech_bubble]

Inside Mary Landrieu’s Final Keystone Push

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The New York Times reports that “despite cajoling and browbeating her colleagues during a private lunch — which one attendee described as ‘civilized but pretty contentious’ — Ms. Landrieu, who has so often bulldozed her way to success, was not able to produce that elusive final vote.”

“At the lunch, Ms. Landrieu made an ‘impassioned plea’ that at moments verged on tears, according to a Democrat. Ms. Landrieu, according to the Democrat, focused part of her pitch on how the legislation would help her back home, though at one point she argued that Democrats should send the bill to Mr. Obama’s desk because it would help him politically by giving him something to veto.”

Bloomberg: “Landrieu had hoped the vote would prove to Louisiana voters that her clout and seniority still matters in Washington. Instead it showed the opposite: Her Democratic colleagues risked no political capital of their own to bail her out, and her Republican opponent, Representative Bill Cassidy, wasted no time rubbing it in.”

Landrieu Was Silent at 70% of Energy Hearings

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Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) “is presenting herself as a leading voice for Louisiana on energy issues in the U.S. Capitol, showcasing her inside influence by forcing a Senate vote on a bill that would allow construction of the Keystone pipeline, a project backed by industries and voters in her state,” Bloomberg reports.

“Yet her outspokenness and perseverance in legislative forums is relatively new, emerging in the 10 months since she took over the chairmanship of the Senate Energy and National Resources Committee and as she faces an uphill battle in a Dec. 6 runoff against Republican Representative Bill Cassidy. Between January 2009 and this week, Landrieu didn’t speak or submit written testimony or questions at almost 70% of the energy committee hearings, according to an analysis of congressional records, videos and transcripts. Her attendance at 137 of the 200 hearings of the full panel or her subcommittees during that six-year period cannot be confirmed through public records.”

About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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