Sen. Mary Landrieu has been invited to speak at the 2009 graduationcommencement on May 15. Chancellor Michael Martin said Landrieu is the University’s top candidate to speak to the graduates.”She understands this state,” Martin said. “She understands this institution. [Landrieu] is our first choice.”Past commencement speakers include then Vice President Dick Cheney in 2006, Cheney’s wife Lynne in 2003, then President George W. Bush in 2004 and former President George H.W. Bush in 2001.Donna Brazile, University alumna and Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign manager, broke the streak of Republican speakers when she gave the commencement speech in spring 2007.Martin said he doesn’t know if Landrieu has accepted the invitation yet. In 1996 Landrieu became the first woman from Louisiana elected to a full term in the U.S. Senate, according to her Web site.She is serving her third term after defeating State Treasurer John Kennedy in elections last fall. Landrieu is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and is a member of the Energy Committee and the Small Business Committee.Landrieu’s father, Moon, served two terms as Mayor of New Orleans in the’70s and her brother Mitch is currently Louisiana’s lieutenant governor.—-Contact Kyle Bove a [email protected]