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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/12/01/what-the-heck-happened-to-mary-landrieu/

What the heck happened to Mary Landrieu?
By Chris Cillizza December 1 at 4:17 PM

Remember when the Louisiana runoff between Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) and Rep. Bill Cassidy (R) was going to be the most unforgettable and pivotal contest in modern memory? That with the fate of Senate control hanging in the balance tens of millions of dollars and hundreds upon hundreds of staffers would pour into the Bayou State in advance of the Dec. 6 runoff?

Yeah, not so much. The Nov. 4 election ended all that — with Republicans netting eight Senate seats and, with it, the majority in the 114th Congress. In the intervening 27 days, you’d be hard-pressed to find a single Democrat in Washington not named “Landrieu” even talking about the race and even fewer (if that’s possible) who think she has any chance at winning.

“I don’t know anyone outside of her staff who thinks she has a chance to win next Saturday,” said Bob Mann, a longtime aide to former Louisiana Sen. John Breaux (D) and now the chair of the Manship School of Mass Communication at LSU. “The hole is just too deep, the abandonment by white voters so complete. She cannot motivate enough black voters to make up for what she’s losing among whites.” (To Mann’s point, check out this post by Philip Bump explaining why the math just isn’t there for Landrieu.)

Conversations with plugged-in Democratic strategists paint Landrieu as a victim of a failed strategy — on her part and on the part of national Democratic officials.

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