The only two candidates in Louisiana’s runoff for governor are also the only two candidates who have placed a bright spotlight on their wives in television commercials and on the campaign trail, notes Jeremy Alford in his latest column.
“In fact, with about three weeks remaining until voters decide who the next governor will be, on Nov. 21, Donna Edwards and Wendy Vitter have become just as recognizable as the candidates to their husbands’ core supporters,” Alford writes. “There’s something both women can inject into the narratives being woven by state Rep. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, and U.S. Sen. David Vitter, a Republican. They add a softer touch—one to a man whose shell was hardened in the halls of West Point and another to a man who may have never survived the treacherous and sometimes scandalous waters of D.C. politics without her.”
Moreover, Alford says, Mrs. Edwards and Mrs. Vitter have put themselves on television as part of the overall branding package and they both expect to contribute somehow on the policy side as Louisiana’s next first lady.
“That’s all to say they deserve a closer look and both agreed to interviews recently,” he writes.
Sen. Vitter and Mrs. Vitter met first on a blind date, but there’s a playful disagreement as to whether it was truly their first encounter.
“We both went to Tulane Law School and I worked at the Orleans District Attorney’s Office and he was interning there,” recalled Mrs. Vitter. “David said we had previously met; I don’t recall that. But we did meet when he was interning at the district attorney’s office.”
Rep. Edwards and Mrs. Edwards were high-school sweethearts.
“He was the captain of the football team and I was on the dance team. You know what the name of the dance team was?” asked Mrs. Edwards, laughing. “The WaHoops. We were the Warriors.”
Although she graduated with a degree in business administration and industrial management, Mrs. Edwards said her decision to go into public education was partly rooted in a desire for public service.
“That’s something I was concerned about and I always liked being able to help people,” she said.
It’s similar to the reason Mrs. Vitter became an attorney and served as a prosecutor.
“The most important thing I thought I could ever do was to be a voice for victims who could not speak for themselves,” she said.
Alford notes that Mrs. Edwards is on leave from her teaching job and has been a constant presence on the campaign trail, attending practically every major event. She visits with reporters, works with the staff and helps her husband prepare for speeches. Mrs. Vitter, on the other hand, has become almost a secondary candidate, giving her own speeches with regularity. (Her applause from the crowd on election night even rivaled her husband’s, with chants of “Wendy! Wendy! Wendy!” coming from the Kenner ballroom, Alford notes.)
“The two personalities, however, have been felt most on the television screen in what are arguably some of the best spots from the entire cycle,” Alford writes. “Mrs. Edwards spoke openly in one commercial about her child being diagnosed with spina bifida and why she and her husband chose to carry their daughter to term despite a doctor’s abortion recommendation. Mrs. Vitter was featured in a primary ad as well, reintroducing herself and her family to voters while trying to show a different side of her husband.”
Jeremy Alford publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter, or on Facebook. He can be reached at JJA@LaPolitics.com.
