In his latest column, Jeremy Alford notes that the biggest headlines from the Louisiana Senate race over the past week came from the race between Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu and Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy to pass bills authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline, as well as Landrieu’s vote against Harry Reid’s party leadership and talk about future committee assignments.
“And so what? Quite frankly it’s all background noise to what this election is really about,” Alford writes. “It’s a referendum on the president and Landrieu’s ties to him. Which, again, has very little to do with what Landrieu has done for Louisiana over the past 18 years or what Cassidy has done during the previous six.”
Alford says the headlines are a reflection of the growing nationalization of Louisiana politics and politicians.
“That we’re watching our runoff candidates debate each other on the floors of the upper and lower chambers only underscores a disconcerting trend in Louisiana. Our elections and politics, everything from narratives to money, are becoming nationalized,” he writes. “It’s resulting in phantom planks—issues that are important to candidates and parties but mean very little to rank-and-file voters. Big splashy TV messages and earned national media are replacing worn-out shoe leather at fairs and festivals. Yet this is about much more than the loss of Louisiana’s storied retail politics; it speaks more to the loss of a human touch and a decline in local institutional knowledge.” Read the full column.
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.
