While the two lieutenant governor candidates criticize each other for skipping forums, they have started going toe-to-toe in negative TV ads, kicking off an already bitter race between Republicans eight days before the start of early voting. The better-funded campaign of the Plaquemines Parish president started the week with both positive ads for himself and attack ads on Jay Dardenne. The lieutenant governor goes up Friday night with ads hitting back on Billy Nungesser. Both sides promise to continue the barrages unabated until the Oct. 22 election. This race between Republicans has been marked by the unprecedented involvement of Sen. David Vitter on Nungesser’s behalf, and the results will say a lot about how much his active support helps or hurts.
—In a pitched battle between Republicans in west Louisiana, the state Republican Party has rescinded its endorsement of ex-Sen. James David Cain, who is challenging Sen. John Smith. The committee’s action two months ago caught off-guard Gov. Bobby Jindal, who reaffirmed his endorsement of Smith, raised money for him, and recently did ads that asked voters not to return to “the politics of the past.” Cain responded, “He [Jindal] wants to run ads against me and he don’t want me to run ads against him. This ain’t no communist country.”
—Of the several legislative races between only Republicans, the redistricting-merged match between Reps. John LaBruzzo of Metairie and Nick Lorusso of New Orleans stands out. Sen. David Vitter jumped into it last week by attending a fundraiser for Lorusso. The senator’s office said Vitter’s support for Lorusso is personal and not connected to his Louisiana Committee for a Republican Majority. Yet it sends a strong message, given that LaBruzzo currently represents Vitter’s old House district.
They said it: “They sent me to prison for life, and I came out with a wife.” —former Gov. Edwin Edwards, in The Ouachita Citizen
(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at Lapolitics.com).
