Roll Call, a political magazine published in Washington, D.C., recently handicapped Sen. Mary Landrieu’s 2014 re-election chances at 50-50. The odds against her were worse three years ago, when she was being vilified by Republicans here and nationwide for supporting President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. In those dark days, with conservative commentators labeling her a “prostitute” for wrangling funding for Louisiana, the unpopular new law was seen as the lodestone that would sink her career. Now, at the dawn of her re-election cycle, she seeks to turn the law to her advantage by using it to criticize her frequent nemesis Gov. Bobby Jindal. She figures that even if he does not run against her—aiming for the presidential nomination instead—he will be campaigning hard for whoever does. So earlier this month she took him to task for not implementing key features of the health insurance law: the expansion of Medicaid and formation of a state insurance exchange. Jindal opposes expanding Medicaid, calling it flawed and rigid, and argues that even though most of the money would come from the federal government, it is still a waste of American taxpayer dollars. Sen. Landrieu and others argue that, philosophical objections aside, the governor’s political responsibility is to see that Louisiana is not shortchanged by having federal taxes raised here spent in other states. Read the full column here.
(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)
Editor’s note: John Maginnis will be on vacation for the holidays. His column is scheduled to return to Daily Report the first week of January.
