How Mary Landrieu Can Get Re-elected

posted at 7:30 pm on December 8, 2009 by Laura Curtis
[ Politicians ]   

Given the unpopularity of Obamacare and the shameless way that Mary Landrieu was bribed to vote for cloture, you might think she’d be worried about getting re-elected.  She’s relying on the fact that she doesn’t have to run for another five years, and now she may have another ace in the hole to guarantee her another term.  Mitch Landrieu, Mary’s brother, just decided to have another go at City Hall.  Aside from her efforts to bribe voters by bringing home as much pork as humanly possible, if he wins that may be enough for her to vote for Obamacare and still win re-election.

How much influence does New Orleans’ mayor have on Senatorial elections?  Well, Mayor Marc Morial and his LIFE organization won it for her the first time she ran.  She may well be relying on that happening again.

This is Mitch’s 3rd try at City Hall.  In 1994, he was beaten by Marc Morial.  In 2006 he was beaten by Ray Nagin.  In context, this was not a bad thing: keep in mind that Nagin was actually the reform candidate.  People forgave Nagin his Katrina behavior because after the runoff, it was down to him and Mitch Landrieu.  Voters asked themselves who they trusted to be in charge of millions of recovery dollars, and they picked Nagin.  Landrieu had recently spent nearly a million taxpayer dollars redecorating his Lt. Governor office, and had ties to Marc Morial, corrupt former mayor and like Mitch, son of a former New Orleans mayor.  In spite of travesties like this, I still think that was the right decision. Bad as Nagin has been, I believe Landrieu would have been worse.

The Landrieus are deeply entrenched in Louisiana politics.  At 27 years old, Mitch was a shoe-in for family La. House seat his father and Mary previously occupied and has been in politics ever since.  Mitch and Mary’s sister, Madeleine, is a Civil District Court Judge who, like most CDC judges, ran unopposed last election.

While nothing illegal has ever been proved, Mary Landrieu more or less stole her Senate seat using ACORN approved methods of getting out the zombie vote, paying people to vote early and often, and holding back precincts so any necessary adjustments could be made.  Woody Jenkins, discouraged by Louisiana election code which requires trials to begin no later 15 days after the election, tried to take his case to the Senate instead.  He did a lousy job proving it, and now as an incumbent, she’s entrenched.

One organization Mary relied on heavily to get her into the Senate was LIFE (Louisiana Independent Federation of Electors).  LIFE was closely associated with Marc Morial, sometime mayor of New Orleans, and like Mary and Mitch, son of a New Orleans Mayor.  Marc’s dad (Dutch Morial) succeeded Mitch’s dad (Moon Landrieu) as mayor.  Like his father, Marc Morial tried – and failed – to amend the city charter so they could run for a 3rd term.

During Mitch’s most recent run for mayor, Nagin rightly made a campaign issue of Landrieu’s ties to Marc Morial.  Pre-Katrina investigations led to a thirty-seven-page indictment that

alleged that Morial cronies skimmed money from an $81 million city contract; an ex-cop was charged with pocketing $800,000; and two city officials were accused of receiving $100,000 each. Meanwhile, Morial’s uncle was accused of skimming more than $500,000 from the city transit authority, and Morial’s aunt was convicted on federal charges of paying kickbacks to a school official.

Morial’s brother Jacque eventually pled guilty to failing to file taxes.  Pampy Barre, a close associate of both Dutch and Marc Morial eventually went to jail – after turning government snitch and taking New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas – another Morial/Landrieu crony – down with him.

Although it’s a long time until Mary Landrieu is up for re-election, a big part of successfully ditching her involves keeping her brother out of City Hall where he would have the opportunity – like Marc Morial before him – to influence her election.  Here’s his competition.  Mitch’s classlessness at hijacking a charity’s groundbreaking event (at which he was scheduled to be one of 14 speakers) to make his announcement is a good illustration of his character.

The Baton Rouge Tea Party is doing a great job keeping the heat on Mary because of her willingness to be bought, but the first step in preventing her 2016 re-election is keeping Mitch out of New Orleans’ City Hall.

Cross-posted.

Blowback