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Landrieu sticks to centrist message
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| Contributor | Brandonius Maximus |
| Last Edited | Brandonius Maximus Oct 21, 2008 12:53pm |
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| Category | Commentary |
| News Date | Tuesday, October 21, 2008 06:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The name on the Nov. 4 ballot is Mary Landrieu. But voters who'll choose between the Democratic incumbent and her Republican challenger, state treasurer John Kennedy, will be deciding more than just who'll represent Louisiana for the next six years in the U.S. Senate.
If the election is a referendum on the two-term senator, it will also answer a question that has been hanging over the state since Hurricane Katrina: Does that distinctly Louisiana brand of moderate Democratic politics still exist?
Landrieu may be the daughter of a New Orleans mayor, but her political lineage really traces back to people such as ex-Sens. J. Bennett Johnston and John Breaux -- Southern Democrats with strong centrist leanings who derived influence not by being party leaders, but by amassing seniority, building coalitions across partisan lines, and providing coveted swing votes.
Landrieu may come down to the left of some of her predecessors in the Senate and current Democratic Congressional colleagues Charlie Melancon and Don Cazayoux, but she fits firmly in that tradition. In fact, she may be one of the few Democrats around the country who boasts of supporting oil drilling and an amendment to prohibit flag burning.
Kennedy is running with backing from the national party, and his staff was recruited from some of the GOP's failed presidential candidates. It shows. His campaign, for the most part, has sought to paint Landrieu as a typical Washington Democrat, and thus out of touch with Louisiana.
Yet Landrieu has turned Kennedy's attacks to her advantage, using them to highlight the very thing that makes her a typical Louisiana Democrat. Whenever Kennedy brings up National Journal's ranking of Barack Obama as the most liberal senator, Landrieu boasts of her own 49th place ranking. So far, the polls are coming down in her favor. |
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