Sen. Mary Landrieu‘s best hope for re-election? Change the letter behind her name from a “D” to an “R,” says a Louisiana newspaper.
Landrieu is one of the senators in one of the tightest rates this year — and if she loses, her loss could potentially flip the Senate to Republican control.
An article in the Baton Rouge Advocate says Landrieu essentially acts like a Republican anyway but that the party label is a scarlet letter.
“She has a letter behind her name, D, and it’s toxic,” Joshua Stockley, a political science professor at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, told the Advocate. “It is incredibly toxic being a Democrat in the South.”
“She could switch her party tomorrow, as a Republican, and win … Her stance on the issues would be almost completely consistent with her [new] party. She acts like a Republican already.”
The idea pits Landrieu’s career advocating for her state against the political wishes of a national party.
Democrats don’t need her to act liberal — they merely need her to win re-election while caucusing with Democrats, giving them the numbers to have a majority and thus control the Senate’s committees.
But as long as voters identify her with the party of President Obama, Louisiana voters may choose one of her Republican opponents instead, observers told the newspaper.
Landrieu’s two main challengers are Republicans U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy and Tea Party conservative Rob Maness.
