Mary Landrieu’s last ride?

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Politico:

HOUMA, La. — Sen. Mary Landrieu wants Louisiana voters to focus on the years she has spent fighting for oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, the billions of dollars she’s secured for port and wetlands projects for her state and the way she championed Louisiana’s recoveries from disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the BP spill. But everywhere she goes, the Senate’s most endangered Democrat encounters the same persistent talking point.

 

“Mary Landrieu supports Barack Obama 97 percent of the time,” say the endless television and radio ads promoting Republican challenger Bill Cassidy, a statistic that has become a common theme even among some former Landrieu supporters in the state. Landrieu dismisses the figure as a “red herring,” but just days before the election, it’s forcing her to spend valuable time arguing that she’s not an Obama copycat.

 

And that helps explain why the 18-year senator faces so much peril at the polls, despite her impeccable Louisiana political pedigree, the power she wields as the chairwoman of the Senate’s Energy Committee and the years of unflagging loyalty she has received from her state’s dominant oil and gas industry. If Cassidy wins, it will because he has followed the playbook of so many other red-state Republicans this year — turning the race into a referendum on an unpopular president, and making local priorities less important than deciding which party will control the Senate.

 

The Louisiana Senate race may be the preeminent contest this year that turns on its head the notion that all politics is local — and some of the biggest beneficiaries of Landrieu’s largesse are abandoning her this time around.

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Her last ride? One can only hope...

[Draggingtree]

Landrieu looking for ways to avoid December runoff

Melinda Deslatte7:44 p.m. CST November 2, 2014

 

BATON ROUGE – Even though a runoff seems inevitable in Louisiana’s U.S. Senate race, Democratic incumbent Mary Landrieu continues to say she believes an outright victory is possible for her Tuesday.

If that can’t happen, Landrieu needs a strong enough showing on Election Day to energize her supporters and keep them believing a loss isn’t looming in December. A win would only become more difficult if a Louisiana runoff decides control of the U.S. Senate.

Early voting

More than 236,000 voters cast ballots through Louisiana’s early voting period — about 8 percent of the state’s 2.9 million registered voters. The ballot has generated stronger interest than the last midterm congressional elections in 2010, when only 125,000 voted early.

 

http://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/louisiana/2014/11/02/landrieu-looking-ways-avoid-december-runoff/18391789/