AND I CAN'T VOTE.
IT'S FOR THE PUPPIES!
Posted on 10/28/2002 5:10:53 AM PST by Theodore R.
Republicans want Bush to visit La. Strategists say president could help force Senate runoff. John Hill / Louisiana Gannett News
Posted on October 28, 2002 BATON ROUGE - Some Louisiana Republican strategists want President George W. Bush to come here in the final week of the U.S. Senate race in an effort to force Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu into a runoff.
"The president is very popular," said Verne Kennedy, who polls for Elections Commissioner Suzanne Haik Terrell, the New Orleans Republican who is in second place in all the polls made public this past week.
"I don't know what the chances are that he will come, but if he did, it would be a big plus. I am waiting to hear myself," Kennedy said.
Terrell said she has not personally been involved in any discussions about Bush's reversing his earlier announced decision not to come into Louisiana as long as more than one Republican is in the race.
"I would like to have the president come in on behalf of Republican candidates," Terrell said.
The White House said as of late Friday there was no Louisiana stop on Bush's campaign schedule. However, Bush does have a Southern campaign swing set for Saturday, three days before the election.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee deferred to the White House but acknowledged Bush could help the GOP.
"It is always good to have the president in your state to cheer up the base," said NRSC Spokesman Dan Allen.
In Kennedy's poll of 600 likely voters taken Oct. 21-24, 65 percent have a favorable impression of Bush. Among whites, seven out of 10 of whom vote Republican regularly, 74 percent give Bush favorable ratings and only 19 percent have an unfavorable rating.
Bush enjoys some support among black voters: 36 favorable to 35 percent unfavorable, Kennedy said.
Landrieu, whose own polls show her in striking distance of an outright primary win on Nov. 5, "would welcome the president," said aide Rich Masters. "Mary has been very supportive of the president."
For a year, Landrieu's polls have shown her getting consistently about 18 to 20 percent of Louisiana's Republican vote, Masters said. "The momentum is clearly going our way," he said. "Our tracking polling (overnight, every night) is showing us at over 50 percent, but we are not resting."
Gov. Mike Foster said the White House and national Republicans "don't talk to me." He said, however, that the White House told him the president would stay out until after the primary.
But if he thought Bush's appearance would make the difference in forcing Landrieu into a runoff, Foster said he, too, would urge Bush to come.
"It might make a difference, but it might not," Foster said. "This is a strange race. Whether there is a runoff turns on whether the African-American turnout is there. If the African-American turnout is big, it's one thing; if it is not big, it's another."
The state Republican Party held a fund-raiser at the Governor's Mansion this past Wednesday night to raise money for the GOP "get out the vote" effort on election day.
"There's not much interest in this Senate race," Foster said. "I expect a very low turnout. The African-American turnout, in my opinion, is the key."
Black voters traditionally have voted more than 95 percent Democratic.
Kennedy said his poll taken for Terrell showed Landrieu at 44 percent, Terrell at 20 percent, Cooksey at 10 percent and state Rep. Tony Perkins, R-Baton Rouge, at 8 percent. Those numbers mirror independent polls released last week.
"This thing is going down to the wire," Kennedy said. "At this point, it
could go either way."
With Landrieu so strong among Republicans, the GOP will be hard-pressed to keep her below 50 percent. The three Republicans have yet to muster the votes to keep her from winning outright, particularly if a large Democrat black vote comes to the polls.
I have no idea whether she will avoid a runoff, but if she is depending on a 20% share of the Republican vote to avoid a runoff, she had better prepare for one.
Hopefully that risk will prove real.
I would think the Nat'l Republican Senate team would recognize this and get George down there. We first must keep her to under 50% before we even get to vote for our top vote-getter. And that may not happen without some energizing of the electorate to look at some of the lesser know challengers.
Is there talk of changing this odd proceedure?
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