As he looks for a message to gain ground with voters, Republican candidate for governor David Vitter has returned to a strategy that served him well in past elections: criticizing other politicians.
As The Associated Press reports, he’s described Baton Rouge as “broken and dysfunctional” and lacking in adult leadership. In his latest ad, he returns to talk of taking away politicians’ “perks,” as men are showing playing poker in a smoke-filled room and riding in golf carts.
The approach may draw voters dissatisfied with the current state of affairs in Baton Rouge, in a race where Vitter lags in the polls. But it could also alienate—or at least irritate—the same elected officials Vitter, a U.S. senator, will need to fix the state’s hefty financial problems if he wins the Nov. 21 runoff against Democratic state Rep. John Bel Edwards.
The Louisiana House Republican Delegation on Tuesday announced its endorsement of Vitter. Rep. Lance Harris, chairman of the delegation, wouldn’t release the vote tally but says more than two-thirds of the chamber’s Republicans supported the endorsement, according to The Associated Press report.
The critical ads that seem to target lawmakers didn’t come up, Harris says.
“Personally, it doesn’t bother me because I know it’s a gubernatorial race. We have to have a good solid conservative in the position. I think that’s the bigger issue,” says Harris, R-Alexandria.
The Senate’s GOP delegation hasn’t given Vitter the same backing, though a few members have announced their individual endorsements for Vitter.
Sen. Danny Martiny, leader of the Senate delegation, said he objects to “this rhetoric that Sen. Vitter is spewing about how corrupt we are and all these perks we get, none of which happens.” Plus, Martiny said, none of the Senate’s Republican members have asked for an endorsement meeting.
“To the contrary, I’ve gotten calls saying, ‘Don’t waste our time,'” he tells The Associated Press.
Vitter has repeatedly positioned himself as an outsider who would take on the politicians when he was a state lawmaker and a member of Congress, even though he’s been in elected office for more than two decades.
