Campaign Diaries

Meet Erik LaFleur

Louisiana Democrats must be getting a bit desperate: Not only have they lost much of their power over the last few years, but they have been unable to find candidates to challenge Senator David Vitter. Their strongest potential candidate, Rep. Charlie Melancon, has all but ruled a run, and there is very little buzz surrounding Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu or former Governor Kathleen Blanco.

Enter state Senator Jim Erik LaFleur, who just went as far as to say that he has been in contact with the DSCC and that “we are going in that direction.” Could there really be such a thing as a Louisiana Democrat interested in the Senate race?

LaFleur is certainly not a household name, and he would face tough odds in a heavily Republican state. Yet, his profile certainly suggests he could be a credible candidate: He represents Louisiana’s 28th district, which contains most of Evangeline Parish and a portion of St. Landry Parish. Both went for John McCain in last fall’s election (the Republican won Evangeline Parish 61% to 38%), which suggests LaFleur has some appeal to the type of Southern voters who have been trending Republican in federal races.

Furthermore, LaFleur has manged to attract a decent amount of press recently by taking a leading role in fighting Governor Bobby Jindal’s decision to reject some of the stimulus money. LaFleur has been urging fellow lawmakers to override Jindal’s decision. “Taxpayers lose by forgoing the stimulus dollars. They pay for them, and they are used in other states instead of here in Louisiana. Unemployed residents also lose. They don’t get the benefits,” LaFleur recently told KATC, which called him an “outspoken critic” of Jindal.

The midterm elections could test the GOP’s hold on Southern voters. While many are fiscally conservative, they have come to rely on federal aid given the intense poverty of some of these states; this could create trouble for ultra-conservative Republicans like Vitter and Jindal, and open the door for Democrats who can appeal to conservative-trending voters with populist discourse. Erik LaFleur would have a lot to prove, but we can’t blame the DSCC for trying to find a new Kay Hagan.

Kudlow out in Connecticut

Make it 0-2 for TV personalities who were mentioned as possible Senate candidates. After MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, it is now Larry Kudlow’s turn to announce that he will not run for elected office. Kudlow, a conservative commentator and a hardline supply-side economist who hosts his own show on CNBC, was mentioned as a potential challenger to Democratic Senator Chris Dodd.

Kudlow made his announcement while hosting his show last night. “It was a flattering conversation and one I thought about, but to me, it was never really a serious proposition,” he said, acknowledging rumors that he had been approached by Republican operatives. “This evening, I’m letting the world know I’m not running for the U.S. Senate… In my heart, I know I belong right here at CNBC.”

Just as with Chris Matthews’s short-lived bid, it was hard to know what to make of the prospect of a Kudlow candidacy. Both of them have long policy-related careers - Kudlow served as an Associate Director for Economics and Planning at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) during Reagan’s Administration, for instance - but their recent TV-related persona would have threatened to make their campaigns into a freak show and potentially hurt their party’s bids to pick-up these seats.

(Whatever you think of Al Franken, another less glamorous Democrat could probably have won that race by a larger margin. On November 4th, Democrats swept their top Senate targets except Minnesota, where Coleman fared much better than many less obviously vulnerable Republicans like Gordon Smith and Elizabeth Dole. Given Coleman’s mediocre ratings, I doubt his resilience was due to his popularity.)

Furthermore, Kudlow would have brought a lot of baggage to the race - too much for a race that is sure to be very difficult for Republicans, however unpopular Dodd gets: Kudlow served on the board of Freddie Mac, as a top executive at Bear Sterns, and his embrace of Reaganomics would cause major electoral trouble - especially in the current economic crisis. Worse still, much of the GOP’s campaign against Dodd will be based on the Senator’s ties to the finance industry; Kudlow would obviously have been the wrong man to carry that message.