NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu was tagged vulnerable by national Republicans well before her re-election bid began. But she has led her GOP opponent, John Kennedy, in fundraising, endorsements and independent poll numbers.
Landrieu, never one to win easily, hopes voters Tuesday will sweep her into a third term in office, while Kennedy, the Louisiana state treasurer, hopes his second shot at a U.S. Senate seat — this time as a Republican — is successful. Election officials expect a hefty turnout until polls close at 8 p.m.
The race was one of the nation’s most expensive Senate contests, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics’ Web site OpenSecrets.org. The candidates — and third party groups supporting them — launched repeated TV attack ads that accused both Landrieu and Kennedy of pay-for-play politics, incompetence and lies about their records and positions.
National Republicans poured millions of dollars into advertising to support Kennedy as history would indicate the seat could be taken from Landrieu. She won the open seat in 1996 by fewer than 5,800 votes and retained it six years later by topping her GOP opponent by 42,000 votes.
Landrieu led the race by double digits in recent independent polls, though Kennedy’s campaign has said its own tracking indicates a tight contest.
“Any time you run against an incumbent, you’re an underdog,” Kennedy said.
Landrieu made Kennedy’s party switch a major issue, labeling him an opportunist who changed his positions to try to gain a higher political post. Kennedy changed parties last year, after being wooed by then-White House political strategist Karl Rove and other Republican leaders.
Landrieu also has easily outraised Kennedy, $10 million to $6 million, according to finance reports.
Kennedy tied himself and Landrieu to the presidential race, saying his support of GOP nominee John McCain was more closely in line with the views of the majority of Louisiana voters. He called Landrieu’s endorsement of Democrat Barack Obama too liberal for the state.
As Obama’s poll numbers soared and McCain’s fell, Kennedy changed his message slightly.
He touted his endorsement of popular Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and called himself a conservative “firewall” against a possible Democratic-controlled White House and Congress.
“It’s going to be an important to have a U.S. senator who’ll stand up for Louisiana principles and Louisiana values and Louisiana beliefs,” he said.
But Landrieu, the daughter of a longtime Democratic political family from New Orleans, tossed aside attempts to link Louisiana’s Senate race to the bid for the White House.
Instead, she focused on her moderate voting record. She said it showed she voted not with the party, but with her constituents. And she talked of the billions of dollars in hurricane recovery and coastal restoration money she’s brought to the state.
“I didn’t go to the Senate to represent a political party. I’m independent in my voting record,” she said.
Kirby Goidel, a Louisiana State University political science professor, said Landrieu’s record after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was a strong one on which to run for re-election.
“She’s been aggressive in fighting for the state, and she’s achieved measurable, quantitative outcomes that she can point to,” he said.
However, Kennedy portrayed Landrieu as a liberal who supports higher taxes and wasteful spending and framed himself as a conservative who wants to end deficit-spending and clean up a broken political system in Congress.
It’s not his first run at the office. In 2004, Kennedy ran as a left-leaning Democrat who backed John Kerry for president, criticizing President Bush’s tax cuts. He lost to Republican David Vitter. Kennedy says party affiliation was never important to him and talked of his fiscal conservatism over the years.
Landrieu, however, called him “one confused politician,” and ran repeated ads describing his stances in previous races as a Democrat that sometimes contradicted his positions in this race.
“The problem with Kennedy isn’t the switch,” Goidel said. “It’s sort of the sense that it’s politically calculated, and the Landrieu campaign has certainly capitalized on that.”
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