Free Republic

The Fat Lady ain't singing. Not yet. Shades of the 1993 election in which Mary Landrieu rode the wave of the Sugar crises in South America, David Vitter, behind in the polls, all runoff season, is building a typhoon over the international Paris terrror crises. In the last poll of the runoff, John C. Convillion of JMC Analytics notes the race has now dropped to 4 percent difference. Weeks ago, Edwards led by 22 points.

This one is by RRH Elections, which is an offshoot polling operation of Red Racing Horses - a political junky blog we frequent often. They've decided to take up collections from their readers and poll races, and the LAGOV race is the latest project within that effort. The poll is an IVR, which is a robopoll, and the sample size is 359 voters. It was apparently taken in two tranches - Nov. 12 and last night. That's not great, but there is some method to the madness here which might offer some credibility to the results. From the poll memo...

In a final statewide TV debate Monday (Nov. 16), Democrat John Bel Edwards and Republican David Vitter began making the closing arguments in a wild gubernatorial campaign that often took on an angry tone. The two men came out swinging as the debate opened with a question about Syrian refugees; it ended with Vitter making a personal appeal to voters for forgiveness for his prostitution scandal and Edwards making the case that he's the best leader. In between, both men fumed at each other for a series of attacks that each said was a distortion of his record. It was...

Republican presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.) are coming to the aid of their colleague Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) in the final week of his Louisi­ana gubernat­ori­al run­off cam­paign. On Sunday, National Journal reported the two presidential hopefuls recorded robocalls voicing sup­port for Vitter, who is trailing Democratic Louisiana state Rep. John Bel Edwards in the heated race. The Vitter campaign told National Journal that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is expected to do the same. Vitter's involvement in the 2007 "D.C. Madam" prostitution scandal resurfaced after a tough Edwards attack ad alleged Vitter "chose...

All weekend long and well throughout the day today, the topic of conversation has been on the attacks in Paris. Here in Louisiana, perhaps more than anywhere else, there is a strong connection with the French: It’s in our culture, it’s the basis of a (rapidly dying) local language, and it is where we as a state came from. The Paris attacks have now given way to a broader U.S. conversation about the acceptance of Syrian refugees, and several states, including Louisiana, have said “No, we’re not cooperating on this.” But, do you know who is okay with accepting Syrian...

Louisiana lawmakers such as Reps. Charles Boustany Jr., John Fleming and State Treasurer John Kennedy have made it known that they are looking at seeking Vitter’s seat, and Republicans there say that field could grow even larger in an open primary. With their support for Vitter, the three have been catering to their constituency of one, Vitter, who, if elected governor, would be able to appoint his successor if he was sworn-in. As they did in Kentucky, Republicans in Louisiana appear to be counting, at least in part, on President Barack Obama’s unpopularity in the South in their messaging against...

Louisiana isn’t anywhere close to belonging on a list of swing states, yet Republican David Vitter is at risk of losing not only his gubernatorial race this month, but also his Senate seat next year. The Pelican State’s senior senator has struggled to unify the Republican vote after finishing second in the Oct. 24 jungle primary with just 23 percent. He trails Democrat John Bel Edwards in multiple public polls heading into the Nov. 21 runoff. Vitter’s numbers have dipped to a point where, should he lose, some Republicans will want him to drop his bid for re-election to the...

The latest attack ad targeting Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) in the Louisiana gubernatorial race claims that he chose "prostitutes over patriots." The 30-second spot contrasts Vitter with opponent Louisiana state Rep. John Bel Edwards (D) on their commitment to the armed forces. "The choice for governor couldn't be more clear: John Bel Edwards, who answered our country's call and served as a Ranger in the 82nd Airborne Division," the ad begins, "or David Vitter, who answered a prostitute's call minutes after he skipped a vote honoring 28 soldiers who gave their lives in defense of freedom." "David Vitter chose prostitutes...

Louisiana Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, a Republican who was eliminated from the state's gubernatorial race in the jungle primary last month, has endorsed Democrat John Bel Edwards over Republican Sen. David Vitter. Dardenne announced his support for Edwards at a news conference at Louisiana State University on Thursday, a day after the Vitter campaign rolled out an endorsement of its own from former Republican Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster. The race has split Team Dardenne, which, along with supporters of Republican Scott Angelle, came up short in the October primary. Earlier this month, Dardenne's spokeswoman, Marsanne Golsby, announced her support for...

Three weeks before Louisiana voters decide who will replace Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.), the outgoing Republican is offering no advice on who to support.

Pollsters: Win over Vitter still tough path BY MARK BALLARD| MBALLARD@THEADVOCATE.COM Oct. 26, 2015; 7:59 p.m. State Rep. John Bel Edwards’ surprise showing in Saturday’s election gave hope to many that the Democratic Party could elect one of its own to a statewide office for the first time since 2008. Edwards was expected to make the Nov. 21 runoff. What surprised many political professionals was that he polled 40 percent of the vote and outpaced Republican candidates in every region of the state in a low-turnout election.

Sen. Marco Rubio is backing a push to increase penalties for undocumented immigrants who reenter the country after previously being deported. The Florida Republican signed onto legislation from fellow 2016 White House hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Thursday, according to the Congressional Record. Under Cruz's legislation, undocumented immigrants face additional prison time if they reenter the country after being deported, including a minimum five-year sentence if they were previously convicted of an aggravated felony or of illegally reentering the country twice. The Texas Republican is expected to come to the Senate floor next week to try to pass the...

Demands accountability of the Obama Administration through legislation cracking down on sanctuary cities, criminal illegal aliens Watch the video WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today delivered a speech on the Senate floor citing the Obama Administration’s persistent negligence of immigration law enforcement and bolstering the Stop Sanctuary Policies and Protect Americans Act (S. 2146), of which he is a lead cosponsor, as a small step in the right direction. In addition to stripping certain federal funds from sanctuary jurisdictions, the legislation also incorporates critical elements of Kate’s Law, which Sen. Cruz introduced earlier this year, by imposing...

Front-running Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump Sunday picked up on a proposal from Sen. David Vitter, R-La., for a constitutional amendment barring "birthright citizenship" for children born in the United States to parents without legal status. It is part of a policy proposal unveiled Sunday (Aug. 16) on his campaign website. The plan calls for Mexico to fund a protective wall across the U.S.-Mexican border, deportation of all "criminal aliens," and tripling the force of U.S. immigration officers.

For a number of ambitious Republicans in Louisiana, a whole lot hinges on the state’s gubernatorial election later this year — and Sen. David Vitter. Vitter is one of four candidates facing off in the Pelican State’s “jungle primary” in October. He will be up against two other Republicans and one Democrat in a race that, unless a single candidate gets half the vote, would advance the two top candidates to a runoff in late November. If he ultimately emerges as the victor — and that’s still an “if”— a brand new set of ifs would arise and leave politicians...

Last week, I argued that Sen. David Vitter – the undisputed leader in this year's governor's race – should be nervous because of our electorate's long history of punishing frontrunners and promoting also-rans. (SNIP) Democrats have a clear choice: send Edwards into a runoff that he almost certainly cannot win – or back a moderate Republican, who could defeat Vitter. If Democrats have any power left in Louisiana politics, it is electing moderate Republicans. That's not a goal that will launch Democratic activists out of bed each morning but it's about all the power the party has left (in statewide...

One fellow senator calls David Vitter’s years-long crusade to scrap health care subsidies for lawmakers and their staffers “disingenuous.” Another says it’s obviously being done “for political purposes.” “I just don’t think he’s made a lot of progress on this issue,” a third senator says. And those are just fellow Republicans talking. Within the chummy confines of the U.S. Senate, Vitter has emerged as one of the most disliked members. The second-term senator’s effort to kill the federal health care contribution, worth several thousand dollars to lawmakers and their staffers, is a big part of it.

Health-care experts call it D.C. insiderism at its worst. The rumors began trickling in about a week before the scheduled vote on April 23: Republican leadership was quietly pushing senators to pull support for subpoenaing Congress’s fraudulent application to the District of Columbia’s health exchange — the document that facilitated Congress’s “exemption” from Obamacare by allowing lawmakers and staffers to keep their employer subsidies. The application said Congress employed just 45 people. Names were faked; one employee was listed as “First Last,” another simply as “Congress.” To Small Business Committee chairman David Vitter, who has fought for years against the...

If Jeb Bush embodies many Republicans’ hopes to soften the GOP’s harsh brand image on immigration and expand the party’s competitiveness with Latino voters, then why is he endorsing and appearing at a political fundraiser tonight for the virulently anti-immigrant Senator David Vitter? (SNIP) Meanwhile, David Vitter is one of the most consistent anti-immigrant hardliners in the Senate – a vocal opponent of the DREAM Act, comprehensive immigration reform, and President Obama’s immigration executive action programs and a lead sponsor of efforts to restrict the use of discretion in immigration enforcement to target felons, not families (it continues to be...

Ten U.S. senators, representing the political spectrum, are seeking a federal investigation into displacement of IT workers by H-1B-using contractors. They are asking the U.S. Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and the Labor Department to investigate the use of the H-1B program "to replace large numbers of American workers" at Southern California Edison (SCE) and other employers. (SNIP) The other signers are Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), a longtime ally of Grassley on H-1B issues; Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), David Vitter (R-La.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), James Inhofe...