There were so few surprises Monday in the final debate of the Louisiana Senate race and the 2014 midterm election cycle that, at one juncture, Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy fed Sen. Mary Landrieu her question.
Before Landrieu could ask Cassidy, a doctor, whether he had billed time to Louisiana State University for medical work while he was serving in Washington, Cassidy cut in.
“I saw your notes,” Cassidy explained nonchalantly, seeming for a moment to throw Landrieu off her rhythm.
After Republicans walloped Democrats at the polls last month, the Louisiana Senate race is still to be decided, but with none of the dramatic suspense that implies. Landrieu, one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents in this midterm election year, still trails Cassidy by double-digits in most public polls, in spite of some recent improvisations.
With an extra month of campaigning, many of the candidates’ attacks and talking points have become rote even to them. Cassidy, in particular, has held fast to his core message, and Monday he continued to hit Landrieu on her support for Obamacare.
“Obamacare says that government knows best,” Cassidy said. “Government does not know best.”
When it came time for Cassidy to pose his question to Landrieu, he asked her whether she would vote for the healthcare law today in light of recent comments by an adviser on the law, Jonathan Gruber, that the legislative process had transpired with little to no transparency to take advantage of Americans.
Landrieu said she does not speak with Gruber, before aiming again at Cassidy. “If Rep. Cassidy didn’t have this issue to talk about,” Landrieu said, “he wouldn’t have anything to talk about.”
Recently, Landrieu has attempted to gain an edge, or a foothold, by rewriting the campaign script.
Last month, she brought the project to build the Keystone XL pipeline to a vote in the Senate, which failed by one vote. Monday, her focus was on whether Cassidy violated the law in receiving his LSU salary.
Were Cassidy to win, Landrieu said, “He’s gonna be fighting more than President Obama. He will be fighting subpoenas because this is going to be under investigation.”
But as the script has changed for Landrieu, the plot arc of her campaign has not.
Landrieu’s re-election, as in previous campaign cycles, will depend largely on whether African Americans show up to vote. In 2002, Landrieu narrowly prevailed in a run-off election because African-American turnout exceeded that of the general election. This year, Landrieu would likely need more of them to vote than did during either of the past two presidential cycles — no small task, given that President Obama was on the ballot both times.
That stark reality has put Landrieu in the precarious spot of trying to distance herself from the president to win over white voters, while defending him to bring black voters to the polls.
This week, Landrieu has shifted more to the latter. On Monday, she joined Obama on a conference call with supporters to receive his endorsement.
Cassidy did not explicitly mention that endorsement Monday, but he hit on a familiar refrain: that Landrieu has been overly supportive of the president and his policies.
“If Sen. Landrieu represents President Obama, I represent you,” Cassidy said.
“He has been very disrespectful to the president and to the office of the president,” Landrieu fired back, echoing the language her campaign has used to target African-American voters. “We need someone who will respect all views, go to Washington and work for the people of this state.”
While Landrieu is still fighting, Democrats outside of Louisiana seem to think they know how the race will end. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee last month canceled its reservations for television advertising time. On Monday, the usual Democrats were even absent from Twitter, which usually acts as a cyber spin room for flacks of both parties to trade talking points during debates.
