Republican Senate candidate Rep. Bill Cassidy cast an early ballot today, seeking to draw renewed attention to a race that has fallen off newspaper front pages and away from people’s minds as they plan holiday meals and shopping schedules.
Cassidy is the front-runner in the race against Democratic incumbent Mary Landrieu, and he’s hoping to maintain that position with a series of high-profile visits from GOP heavyweights in advance of the Dec. 6 election.
Louisiana’s last-in-the-nation Senate race won’t decide party control of the Senate. But Cassidy says voters still should view it as a way to show their displeasure with President Barack Obama’s policies and continue the Republican surge in the midterm election cycle.
“This is Louisiana’s chance to put an exclamation mark behind what the rest of the country has said,” the GOP congressman told The Associated Press before early voting, with his daughter in tow.
Landrieu is trying to gain ground with attack ads against Cassidy, but she faces an uphill climb to a fourth term. Fifty-six percent of voters chose one of the Republican candidates in the Nov. 4 open primary, and Landrieu is the last Democratic statewide elected official still standing in a state trending more Republican each election cycle.
Republicans have rallied strongly around Cassidy’s candidacy, with a string of visits from likely GOP presidential candidates, including Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Texas Gov. Rick Perry was in Louisiana on Tuesday, attending three rallies with Cassidy.
“It just shows that we are unified as a conservative movement,” Cassidy says. Read the full story.
National GOP and conservative organizations have poured millions into advertising for Cassidy and against Landrieu in the runoff election, while Landrieu has been left largely on her own in the ad war. Read the full story.
