“Who would you rather have a beer with?”
Columnist Jeremy Alford says this “somewhat misguided” measure of politicians has become a perennial question in modern presidential polling, and it’s something reporters and consultants sometimes kick around in Louisiana’s race for governor.
“U.S. Sen. David Vitter, the front-runner who is equal parts Rhodes Scholar and practitioner of hardball politics, doesn’t exactly fit the mold of drinking buddy,” Alford writes. “But there he was last week, with a pint in hand in sight of photographers, hamming it up with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has crafted his own alpha male persona.”
That was something, Alford says, because the buttoned-down senior senator definitely needs some softening around the edges.
“Many political watchers probably don’t know there’s a human side beneath that tough exterior,” Alford writes. “Besides beer, the politico has a serious sweet tooth and once told me one of his favorite foods is ice cream. Vitter painted Mardi Gras floats for his first job, loves architecture so much that he drafted the initial design of his family home, plays tennis, likes The Sound of Music and re-watches Fawlty Towers on occasion.”
But as soon as Vitter hoisted those hops, Alford says, he came under fire.
“And it came courtesy of the race’s Mr. Nice Guy, Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne,” he writes. “In a press release, Dardenne called Vitter an ‘absentee senator’ for missing a vote on the U.S. Senate’s first budget passed in six years. Vitter’s vote wasn’t needed, and he probably got more political mileage out of the Christie event, but Dardenne saw an opening and seized it in what was a sign of things to come.”
Alford says Dardenne’s shot across the bow foreshadows the real negativity that’s building in the governor’s race.
“The paths to victory against Vitter are slim, if you believe the polls and conventional wisdom. The Republican candidates will have to start whacking away at Vitter like a political piñata to gain traction—and to appear runoff worthy, especially with polling positioning [Democratic candidate John Bel] Edwards for the second spot in another classic Louisiana R-vs.-D showdown,” he writes. “Independent groups may eventually surface to do the dirty work for them, but the big question remains if and when Vitter’s ‘serious sin’ plays out in direct mail pieces and on television screens.”
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.
