GOP easily adds another Senate seat

WASHINGTON—For months many observers thought Louisiana’s Dec. 6 runoff election could determine control of the U.S. Senate. It turned out to be a footnote at the end of a Republican romp—and it wasn’t even close.

Three-term U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy crushed three-term Sen. Mary Landrieu on Saturday, seizing a seat Democrats have held since 1883. Republicans also swept a pair of U.S. House runoff elections in the Bayou State—including the seat Cassidy just vacated—giving the GOP a 246-188 majority and matching a Truman-era high-water mark.

Landrieu won a plurality of the vote in last month’s general election, but she didn’t reach the required 50 percent, which paved the way for Saturday’s runoff. The Associated Press called the election for Cassidy shortly after the polls closed at 8 p.m. CST.

“This victory belongs to you,” Cassidy told his supporters in Baton Rouge. “The people of Louisiana voted for a government that serves us but does not tell us what to do.”

Cassidy, 57, whom WORLD profiled in August, is a medical doctor, a part-time Louisiana State University professor, and a Sunday school teacher at Chapel on the Campus in Baton Rouge. He made healthcare reform and energy issues the cornerstone of his campaign and spent a lot of time tying his opponent to President Barack Obama.

Landrieu spent much of her campaign trying to look like Cassidy. She distanced herself from Obama, pushed for fixes for Obamacare, and last month embarked on a failed attempt to gain Senate approval for the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline. This week she even claimed, “I do not support abortion. Period,” during a debate, even though she has a 100 percent pro-abortion voting record since 2009, according to pro-life groups.

“Over the years, she repeatedly sought to mislead pro-life voters about her record on abortion,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List. “She wanted to enjoy the reputation of a pro-life senator while voting for taxpayer-funded abortion and opposing the most popular pro-life bill in the nation.”

Cassidy’s election gives the GOP a 54-46 edge when the Senate convenes in January. Perhaps more importantly it adds extra cushion for Republicans in 2016, when the party will defend 24 of 34 seats up for reelection.

After Republicans won control of the Senate last month, Democrats abandoned Landrieu, who received virtually no help from outside groups. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee canceled $1.9 million worth ad buys after the party’s Nov. 4 losses. Landrieu said she was “extremely disappointed” in the decision.

Despite a big lead in the polls, Republican and conservative groups continued to pour money into Cassidy’s campaign coffers.

“Mary Landrieu stopped listening to Louisiana a long time ago, and started listening to her friends inside the Beltway instead,” said Phillip Joffrion, director of Americans for Prosperity–Louisiana, one of the groups that aggressively campaigned against the incumbent. “Louisianans had plenty to be upset about.”

Landrieu, the chair of the Senate Energy Committee, made a big push to turn out minority voters in the runoff, but it wasn’t enough to make up her massive unpopularity among white voters, which comprise about 60 percent of the state’s population. In the open primary last month she won just 18 percent of the white vote.

Landrieu, 59, is a career politician from a political dynasty who has repeatedly won what seemed like unwinnable races. She spent eight years in the Louisiana House of Representatives and eight years as the state treasurer before narrowly winning her U.S. Senate seat in a 1996 runoff—the same year Bill Clinton was the last Democrat to carry the state in a presidential election.

Landrieu again won a close runoff election in 2002. In 2008 she won the open primary with 52 percent of the vote, even though Republican John McCain won the state by almost 20 points in the presidential election.

Ultimately, Landrieu’s support for President Obama and the Affordable Care Act—both unpopular in the state—did more than anything else to sink her. “Sen. Landrieu represents Barack Obama. I represent you,” Cassidy said Monday in the final debate.

Landrieu was the last Democrat holding statewide elected office in the state and the last Senate Democrat representing the Deep South.