IMHO, she was a weak candidate. The pubbies could not find a "Breux like" figure to run against Mary so now they pay the price. It's up to the party to find strong candidates not just pray that Bush's reputation will win every election....
I think the failure to find a strong candidate was the reason that they went with the run-off strategy. I still think she would have had a chance if all the things I detailed above hadn't come into play.
I do know that they looked at Billy Tauzin and I also think they tried to get a governor to run (can't remember whether it was the current one or a former gov).