Pierson’s run for La. Supreme Court getting serious

Attorney Mary Olive Pierson’s campaign for the Louisiana Supreme Court may have started as something of a joke—a protest against the fact that six sitting judges are duking it out for the seat being vacated by retiring Chief Justice Catherine “Kitty” Kimball. But Pierson’s run for the high court is no longer a laughing matter: This week she hired Washington, D.C.-based consultant Jim Gerstein of GBA Strategies to do polling for her campaign. She is also negotiating with a Washington, D.C., media consultant to handle her campaign ads, though she is not ready to disclose the name of the firm. “This isn’t going to be a lightweight campaign,” Pierson says. “If we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it right.” GBA Strategies has done work for several Louisiana campaigns and includes among its list of clients dozens of prominent elected officials, organizations and businesses, including U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., the National Education Association and Google. Perhaps more importantly, both GBA and the media consultant Pierson is planning to hire come highly recommended by Democratic political guru James Carville, who is Pierson’s friend and unofficial campaign adviser. Pierson has already started fundraising, though she declines to disclose how much she has raised thus far. “I started this to make a point, and nobody agreed with me,” she says. “Well, I think they’re starting to agree with me now that six judges ought not be running for this one seat.” —Stephanie Riegel