And when Vitter entered the race in January 2014 as the frontrunner, he was pulling in tremendous sums of campaign cash and firing up a dominant political machine that he’s used to get himself and his allies regularly elected to Louisiana offices. “I’m not doing this anymore”.
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Democrats will seek to convince themselves that Edwards’ victory is somehow the “turn of the tide” and represents a comeback for the party that will carry over into 2016. “I’m going to go duck hunting with my son”.
State Rep. John Bel Edwards trounced Republican Sen. After a bruising primary last month left state Republicans divided, Edwards seized the opening to become the only Democratic governor south of Virginia. In fact, as Breitbart News reported, Edwards likely lost some support because of his stance-though too late to make much of a difference to the outcome. What would happen if he didn’t win, though, was largely a matter of speculation until Vitter came out and said it. Indeed, initially several of the reporters in the room reported on Twitter stated that Vitter had announced that the Senate was immediately leaving the Senate, due apparently to the fact that he wasn’t clear at first.
Landry, a one-term former congressman who received the endorsement of the state Republican Party, framed his entire campaign as a referendum on Caldwell’s performance in office.
No intelligent electoral process consists of a jungle primary, and yet Louisiana is addicted to the suffering it inflicts upon us. “I’d reached my personal term limit”. “Republicans couldn’t have had a worse candidate”.
Republicans said they will keep control of the Legislature.
Edwards, a veteran and West Point graduate stakes out some conservative turf – he’s anti-abortion and pro-gun rights. At the time, he confessed to a “serious sin”, and then handily won re-election to the Senate in 2010. There is no shortage of those who are seen as interested, including U.S. Reps. Charles Boustany and John Fleming, among others.
Republican challenger Jeff Landry defeated the GOP incumbent in Saturday night’s runoff election, ending Caldwell’s tenure as Louisiana’s top lawyer after two terms.
Running for state office, though, the charges stuck.
But the governor’s race was different. But Edwards turned out to be more than the party place holder many assumed him to be.
Edwards is socially conservative, but that’s to be expected of Democratic candidates in red regions like the Deep South. Like me, he was a Democratic delegate to the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte for Barack Obama.
State Rep. Kenny Havard is among those who broke GOP ranks to endorse Edwards.
Social issues, in any case, will be far down his to-do list. As fruitless as that effort often was, it seemed to clarify what his pitch would be in a governor’s race.
“I’m not supporting a Democrat; I’m supporting the man who I think can best bring about the consensus needed to move Louisiana forward”, Shadoin said. Starkel said Edwards had been particularly adept at stealth assault drills.
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In the final days of the campaign, Vitter focused on Syrian refugees after the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people. Mary Landrieu’s sound defeat in her re-election bid just past year.
