Cassidy says announcement on his next run coming soon

Will he, or won’t he? Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy still won’t say for certain whether he plans to run against Sen. Mary Landrieu in 2014, but expect the mystery to be solved soon. In an interview with Daily Report, Cassidy says an announcement is forthcoming shortly. “We are planning an announcement,” he says. “But I’d rather hold off on that discussion just because I’d rather it not be piecemeal. I’d rather it be an all-at-one-time sort of thing.” Rumors that Cassidy might challenge Louisiana’s senior senator—a Democrat who has been in office since 1997—have persisted since last fall. That’s when he hired Gov. Bobby Jindal’s chief political adviser, Timmy Teepell, to manage his re-election campaign, despite a lack of serious opposition. He carried nearly 80% of the vote in a district that encompasses Livingston and Pointe Coupee parishes, as well as sections of Ascension, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, St. Charles, St. Helena, St. John the Baptist and West Baton Rouge. Days after the election, he told reporters the U.S. Senate could be his next stop, saying he was planning to “go around the state and speak to supporters to see if there’s an appetite for the idea.” Earlier this month, a poll conducted by GOP pollster Glen Bolger of Public Opinion Strategies showed Cassidy with 14% of the vote on a four-way ballot that included Landrieu, GOP Rep. John Fleming of Minden, and BESE Chairman Chas Roemer. In that internal poll conducted for Fleming, Landrieu took 47%; Fleming, 15%; and Roemer, 6%. —Penny Font