Tradition, Luck May Work to Reelect Senator Landrieu

Landrieu follows long political tradition John Hill / Louisiana Gannett News Posted on December 1, 2002

CHAUVIN - In a recent campaign stop, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, her hands outstretched, looked at an aide in frustration.

She was standing next to Maggie Kibodeaux, 48, under the picture of Kibodeaux's brother, Kenneth C. Boudreaux, the first Terrebonne Parish resident killed in the Vietnam War and for whom the Chauvin VFW Hall in which she was standing was named.

"T., do we have a camera?" she said. When no answer was forthcoming, her arms shot out and her voice became just a bit louder: "T, do we or don't we have a camera? Yes or no?" Landrieu lashed out, providing a rare glimpse of the temper that she has said is her worst characteristic.

The flash was gone as suddenly as it appeared, and Landrieu turned back into the cool, controlled, soft but firmly spoken veteran politician who now finds herself in yet another cliffhanger race - this time to retain her seat against Republican Suzanne Haik Terrell.

Within minutes, Bradley located a camera and the picture was taken. Landrieu pointed others to the story of Boudreaux, who was killed in 1966 as he parachuted in with an Army medic unit to help wounded in a battlefield. He landed on a land mine. Landrieu is obviously moved.

Jesse Ayers, 68, of Houma, a World War II veteran wearing a black baseball cap with "World War II Vets; I served with pride" stitched in white block letters, approached Landrieu.

"Suzie ... didn't celebrate Veterans Day, she celebrated 'United We Stand' Day," Ayers said, visibly disturbed. "There is no connection. Mary, you get the word out that the vets support you," he said, giving her a copy of the October issue of the national VFW Political Action Committee's October newsletter and pointing to its endorsement of her.

Here, as elsewhere in Louisiana during this intense runoff race, Landrieu campaigns on her record of bringing home help. The story here is a $7 million emergency grant that repaired the water main into nearby Grand Isle.

Landrieu is all business as she listens to Grand Isle Mayor David Camandelle, 46, tell about the day the water stopped coming in from Lafourche Parish. It was 1997 and the water main just rusted out.

"I got my personal money and bought garbage cans and filled them with water and took them to the school so the kids could wash their hands and we flushed the toilets," Camandelle said. "There is nobody in the United States who ought to live like that."

A phone call to Landrieu's office resulted in her asking Camandelle to come right up to Washington, D.C.

"She's family," Camandelle said. "I'm willing to follow her anywhere in Louisiana to tell the story."

For Landrieu, who turned 47 on Nov. 23, politics and public service are and always has been a way of life. Her father, Moon Landrieu, was one of New Orleans' most popular mayors, a job he held until he became then-President Jimmy Carter's secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

She ignored her father's advice about not going into politics. And once she made the decision, dad helped.

The oldest of Moon Landrieu's eight children began with winning a seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives at age 22, turning 23 just after the election in 1979. She used that family savvy to win a seat on the state House Appropriations Committee. Early on, Landrieu, who repeated the feat by landing on the U.S. Senate's appropriations committee, knew that controlling the money was the place to be.

Former state Rep. Robert Adley, D-Bossier City, who was 31 at the time, remembers meeting Landrieu at a dinner held by then-outgoing Gov. Edwin W. Edwards at the Governor's Mansion.

"She was a very young, giggly girl out of New Orleans who had a last name that people knew all over the state," Adley said. "When she went into the House, she was young and immature. When she would get into debates, she would cry."

Landrieu quickly matured and got tougher. She was a quick study in the political process. "She was from a liberal district in New Orleans," Adley said. "I told her, Mary, with a name like yours, you can really go somewhere. But you really need to moderate your position because when you get up in my neck of the woods, that will kill you."

By the time Landrieu got elected state treasurer in 1987 at age 31, she had grown more moderate, even conservative to Adley's way of thinking. She appointed a blue ribbon panel headed by then-Tulane University President Eamon Kelly to study the treasury's operations and instituted such things as requesting bids from banks to become the state's central banker, saving the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Even her personal life has been intersected by her political one. It was on a trip to the Washington Mardi Gras ball that proved to be one of the most important journeys of her life. There, she met and fell in love with Frank Snellings, then president of the Ouachita Parish Police Jury and scion of an affluent Monroe family that was one of the original investors in Delta Air Lines.

Snellings and Landrieu were married, but children did not come naturally; so the young couple adopted. Son Connor, 10, and daughter Mary Shannon, 5, are Landrieu's pride and joys.

"You know, we are very, very lucky to have such wonderful children," Landrieu said. One reason she and Snellings decided to build a house four blocks from the U.S. Capitol is so she could spend as much time with the kids as possible.

There was her run for governor in 1995, her campaign torpedoed by Edwards, who so loathed her that he wanted to prevent her from getting elected. Edwards and some of his political buddies were angered because Landrieu, as state treasurer, had exposed an undisclosed fee-splitting deal in which Edwards' supporter Norbert Simmons, who became owner of a New Orleans casino, got some $250,000.

So Landrieu finished a close third behind Gov. Mike Foster and state Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge.

After that crushing defeat, Landrieu and Snellings went to Renaissance Weekend in Hilton Head, S.C., for the gathering of young Democratic thinkers. The idea of her running for U.S. Senate in 1996 for the seat being vacated by J. Bennett Johnston of Shreveport was born.

Then-President Bill Clinton put his arm around Landrieu's shoulders and said, "Mary, you have got to do this for our party."

Landrieu got into a runoff with former state Rep. Woody Jenkins, a Baton Rouge Republican. Jenkins protested Landrieu's 5,788-vote margin for months. Nevertheless, Landrieu - now known as "Landslide Landrieu" in Washington, D.C. - took her seat in January 1996.

With a week left, polls show it could be a repeat of 1996 with the election far too close to call.

"It's going to be close," Landrieu said. "As always, I'm going to be 'Landslide Landrieu.'"

In the most recent reports filed with the U.S. Senate, Mary Landrieu shows cash on hand as of Nov. 17 as $493,628. More money has flowed into the campaign with several high-profile fund-raisers since then, but the exact amounts won't be known until after Saturday's election. Landrieu's own campaign reports raising another $337,500.

Cash on hand as of Nov. 17, includes expenses and pre-primary debts not noted above: $493,628.

EDUCATION: Ursuline Academy High School, New Orleans; LSU, with a bachelor's degree in sociology.

POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: state treasurer, state representative, currently U.S. senator.

Then-President Bill Clinton put his arm around Landrieu's shoulders and said, "Mary, you have got to do this for our party."

The only time LA has rejected the pleas of AR Bill was in 2000, when it declined to support Vice President Gore.

Jesse Ayers, 68, of Houma, a World War II veteran wearing a black baseball cap with "World War II Vets; I served with pride" stitched in white block letters, approached Landrieu.

2002-68=1934.

Max 11 Years old in 1945.

Did he perhaps serve as an underage boy prostitute with the 69 regiment of the 666 army`?.

Nice puff piece.

For journalist unbiasedness, where the puff piece on Terrell?

Oh' here it is
Headlines:
Terrell eats little children and buys dog food for her granny

A self-reminder bump to get back later with a link to a mass-emailer that works by zip code, for newspapers.

She was first elected at the age of 22. When in her life has she EVER held a private sector job?

That jumped out at me, too. My father in law is 75 and joined the Merchant Marine at 17. He is at the younger end of the WWII vets. My dad is 68. He was too young for Korea, although his brother was drafted.

Jesse Ayers is a liar and the reporter, if interested in the truth would have called him on it.

John Hill, Capitol reporter, can be reached by e-mail at TalktoJHill@aol.com, or by postal service at P.O. Box 44337, Capitol Station, Baton Rouge, LA 70804.

Thanks, let me see if I can find the damned thing with this old PC... it's sooo slooow...

Nope, the link I have is dead as a doornail, and nothing comes up in a search.

Hey, good point, liberals always hate it when somebody starts to add up the math, and things do not compute. I recall Senator Torricelli, D-NJ, saying that he had watched the Kefauver hearings on TV. At the time of those hearings, Bob was either unborn or just one year old!

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