'The choice for governor couldn't be more clear.'
November 7, 2015 12:10 AM   Subscribe

The gloves are coming off in the race for the Louisiana governorship, as a new attack ad from Democrat John Bel Edwards states that Republican rival David Vitter 'chose prostitutes over patriots'.

More background on the Louisiana gubernatorial race: Can a Democrat be elected governor in Louisiana? John Bel Edwards hopes for textbook finish
"In a sense, John Bel Edwards may be the beneficiary of the right set of circumstances [...] Just looking at this on its face, this should be an election in which Republicans should win. But given everything else, there were some unique factors this time that really give John Bel Edwards a better than 50 percent chance of being elected."
posted by showbiz_liz (46 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
“BAM!” wrote @BossMedia Comm.
posted by grobstein at 12:27 AM on November 7, 2015


If Edwards succeeds, I will recover a little of my hope for the political future of the United States. But then, wasn't the Democrat leading in the run-up to the Kentucky election last week?
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:42 AM on November 7, 2015


I dislike the implication that prostitutes can't be patriots
posted by clockzero at 1:06 AM on November 7, 2015 [56 favorites]


Oh yeah well my opponent is named after an ancient Babylonian god. How can we trust that he won't summon Gozer the Gozerian and bring about the end of the world?
posted by XMLicious at 2:58 AM on November 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


chose prostitutes over patriots

Who in their right mind would not? Prostitutes are more lively conversationalists at the very least. And probably have a more realistic and pragmatic understanding of the world to boot.
posted by Grangousier at 4:14 AM on November 7, 2015 [20 favorites]


chose prostitutes over patriots

Seconded. The key difference is that the prostitute stops f#cking you once you're dead.
posted by leotrotsky at 4:39 AM on November 7, 2015 [27 favorites]


Also, who in there right mind thought David Vitter would be a good candidate for the Republican ticket? He's a scumbag among Louisiana politicians.
posted by leotrotsky at 4:42 AM on November 7, 2015 [7 favorites]


Mod note: A couple of comments deleted; I get the urge, but let's not derail completely with a bunch of necrophilia jokes or similar. Thanks.
posted by taz (staff) at 5:03 AM on November 7, 2015


Bear in mind that his Republican opponents hit him with the prostitution scandal early and often in the first round of elections (Louisiana doesn't technically have a primary, just an open general election where the top two vote getters advance to a runoff unless one person wins an outright majority) and yet the base still turned out for him. Charming!
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 5:10 AM on November 7, 2015


But then, wasn't the Democrat leading in the run-up to the Kentucky election last week?

There are some questions.
posted by pjern at 5:17 AM on November 7, 2015


Vitter's ads have been terrible. Shrill, shouty, and very obviously aimed more at Obama than JBE, and running every 5 minutes, even the most partisan Republican has to eventually wonder if Vitter doesn't realize that he isn't running against Obama.

The JBE ad is a new stroke for his campaign in going after Vitter's prostitute problem, but it's not new in the overall campaign; "Gumbo PAC" has been running much harsher anti-Vitter ads since the start of the primary. The OP JBE ad is relatively sedate by comparison.

There is a lot of negative sentiment because when Vitter's name showed up in the Pamela Martin little black book, he did not follow what was then the accepted protocol of resigning in disgrace, as Bob Livingston had done. He calculated correctly that enouogh people would forgive and forget by the next election to let him keep his job in this heavily red state, but there is still a lot of resentment and embarrassment floating around.

There is a lot of outrage in red circles over Jay Dardenne's endorsement of JBE over Vitter, but he put it well when he was asked about it: "All those things I was saying about Vitter just two weeks ago are still true." Ouch.

Anyway early voting opens in about an hour. I'll be back.
posted by Bringer Tom at 5:17 AM on November 7, 2015 [7 favorites]


The comments below that article,"we're electing a governor, not a pastor", "raising the minimum wage will hurt business owners","I was voting for Edwards until this",...it's like the Republicans have some semi-sentient Twitter-bot with user accounts everywhere.
posted by bonobothegreat at 6:12 AM on November 7, 2015


NOLA.com's comment section is a well known cesspool. This is the same rag where the US Attorney's office was caught leaving pseudonymous inflammatory comments against the targets of active investigations, leading to a scandal and ending several careers.
posted by Bringer Tom at 6:18 AM on November 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


Wise thanked Vitter for getting him an operation at a Veterans Affairs clinic, before he lost his leg or his life. The ad concluded with the tagline: “Veterans for Vitter. Period.”

For the life of me I don't know why Edwards didn't point to that and say something to the effect of, "It shouldn't take special favors for our vets to receive care, the GOP will never be the party you can turn to in making sure the members of our armies are taken care of, one and all."
posted by Slackermagee at 6:52 AM on November 7, 2015 [15 favorites]


Also, who in there right mind thought David Vitter would be a good candidate for the Republican ticket?

Who in their right mind thought that the current incumbent would be a good governor? There's no understanding Louisiana politics unless you're in Louisiana.

And, actually, Vitter's a perfect candidate for the Republicans. He's a Republican avatar, from the smug entitlement to the diaper-wearing and all the way down the line.
posted by blucevalo at 6:56 AM on November 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


The framing is gross, but the actual scandal is legitimately shocking. Apparently Vitter received a phone call from a prostitute on the floor of the house of Congress while simultaneously skipping out on a vote to commemorate dead soldiers. It would have been wrong to receive a call from his mom at that moment because he was supposed to be doing his job. It's the rare sex scandal that actually does prove its culprit unfit to hold public office.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 7:22 AM on November 7, 2015 [6 favorites]


...it's like the Republicans have some semi-sentient Twitter-bot with user accounts everywhere.

What's the difference between an Internet stalwart and a semi-sentient twitterbot?

One does what it's programmed to do, and the other can be turned off.
posted by johnnydummkopf at 7:27 AM on November 7, 2015 [4 favorites]


Apparently Vitter received a phone call from a prostitute on the floor of the house of Congress

Geez, you'd think the house of Congress would provide some better facilities for its prostitutes.
posted by nubs at 7:40 AM on November 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


Does having the last name Edwards help or hurt him in 2015?
posted by Room 641-A at 7:41 AM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


skipping out on a vote to commemorate dead soldiers

From a practical standpoint, his individual yes vote is fairly pointless on a non-controversial, feel-good bill.
posted by ryanrs at 7:46 AM on November 7, 2015


There are some questions.

There are absurd conspiracy theories. The "evidence" boils down to "there's no possible way more Democrats voted for Secretary of State than Governor" and that the polls were wrong. Except, that's exactly what happened in 2011 when Jamie Comer, the Republican candidate for Commissioner of Agriculture, won his race by over 60k more votes than Steve Brasher garnered for Governor. The candidates were shit. Jack Conway is shit. People don't vote for shit. That's all there is to it, you don't need wild eyed conspiracy theories to explain why redder than red Kentucky "Democrats" didn't vote for an uninspiring candidate at the top of the ticket while voting for others on the lower lines.

Why the polls were so bad is still an open question, but when N=4, we shouldn't really be treating those results as gospel.

Blaming Kentucky losses on black box voting machines and the Illuminati is pointless and counterproductive to the question of WTF do Democrats do to address their failing message at the state level.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:15 AM on November 7, 2015 [5 favorites]


As they say, killbots before chill prosts.

So fourteen years ago he didn't participate in a pretty meaningless vote to honor troops killed ten years before that.

... Hey, neither did some other person named "Sanders".
posted by nom de poop at 8:25 AM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


Did Sanders miss the vote because he got a call about the availability of his favorite sex worker and had to run out and get into a diaper really quick? I guess we'll never know.
posted by Cookiebastard at 8:44 AM on November 7, 2015 [7 favorites]


Does having the last name Edwards help or hurt him in 2015?

This is also relevant to my interests, but he's no relation to Eddie.

(We said "no relation" quite a few times growing up. No known relation to this guy either.)

And it's not like Eddie's laying low to help anybody out; he made it to the runoff in the Congressional race last year.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 8:53 AM on November 7, 2015


Also, I need to know Gumbo PAC's position on okra.

Anti- or GTFO
posted by Huffy Puffy at 8:54 AM on November 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


Just done early voting. Turnout is pretty good, about the same as for the last Senate race Landrieu lost. This is in heavily Republican St Tammany but it's hard to see good turnout helping Vitter when NOBODY is enthusiastic about him.
posted by Bringer Tom at 9:05 AM on November 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


this ad is tame; it's news because Edwards has been running so squeaky clean. Check out this endorsement ad from the Louisiana Sheriffs. Like an anti-willie horton ad.

and check out Dardenne's endorsement of Bel Edwards.

Gumbo PAC has been hammering on Vitter since before the runoff. there's been a giant "ABV" billboard for about a year.

Vitter is notorious for running racist ads about immigration against his opponents. I won't link them here, you can imagine what an ad criticising someone for prison reform might look like.

And, while the days of high turnout are over, here's a little history

here's a timely debate on the medicaid expansion, since i believe vitter has now been cornered into supporting it...
posted by eustatic at 9:28 AM on November 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


more on louisiana elections from thelensnola
posted by eustatic at 9:44 AM on November 7, 2015


Apparently Vitter received a phone call from a prostitute on the floor of the house of Congress

I would imagine he took it out of professional courtesy.

(Just kidding. I wouldn't insult sex workers by comparing them to members of congress. )
posted by TedW at 10:14 AM on November 7, 2015 [3 favorites]


eustatic, that Dardenne endorsement was scathing, wow.
posted by LooseFilter at 11:16 AM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


"we're electing a governor, not a pastor"

Wait, what?

This is Louisiana. They're electing a pastor, not a governor.
posted by Sara C. at 11:20 AM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


They don't call 'em parishes for nothing.
posted by Nerd of the North at 12:23 PM on November 7, 2015


They're electing a pastor, not a governor.

Our outgoing whackjob notwithstanding, none of the top four this time was running to be Pastor of Louisiana and Bobby Jindal didn't actually get elected on anything like that kind of platform, although he morphed into Pastor of Louisiana once he started his run for Pastor of the USA.

There have historically been three major voting blocs in Louisiana, roughly the North, Acadiana, and New Orleans. The North, including Baton Rouge, roughly parallels Mississippi and is strongly partisan Republican. New Orleans was until Katrina stronly partisan Democratic. And the Acadians are not all that strongly partisan but will vote for one of their own of either party. This is what propelled Edwin Edwards into office so many times; the North and NOLA cancelled out and Acadiana elected him.

New Orleans has repopulated but it has gentrified so not with Democrats, but a different dynamic is at work; the city Republicans are more old school pro-business wing, while the Northern rural Republicans are more likely to be fundie tea baggers. Ironically it is the new NOLA people who are probably most likely to hold their nose and vote for Vitter for pragmatic reasons.

In the primary Dardenne and Angele split the not-Vitter Republican vote which kept both of them out of the runoff. Now that it's down to Vitter and Edwards, all the people who voted for Vitter and Edwards in the primary will obviously vote for them again if they bother to show up. The whole thing hinges on how many of those people show up and what the Dardenne and Angele voters will do, vote party or not-Vitter, and whether they show up.

So it's very complicated and a lot depends on loyalties and motivations. But no, we're not electing a pastor.
posted by Bringer Tom at 12:28 PM on November 7, 2015 [3 favorites]


(I'm from Louisiana.)
posted by Sara C. at 12:31 PM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


Well so am I, which is why I used we're. As in, I voted today, and not for a pastor.
posted by Bringer Tom at 12:33 PM on November 7, 2015


My point was a more general one about what (many) Louisianians expect from a governor, not so much what the official platforms are.

Louisiana politics is drastically more religious than politics in almost any other state, with the possible exception of Utah, and for historically similar reasons.

IMO the Catholic presence in Louisiana and the self-identification so many people have with being Cajun and Catholic has a disproportionate impact on how religion is treated in areas of life that would be secular almost anywhere else in America, even in other "bible belt" states.

My biggest memory about this is when, in the midst of Hurricane Katrina, Kathleen Blanco called for a statewide day of prayer. Which I think is not a thing that would be appropriate in any context in another state, but came from one of the more liberal governors Louisiana has ever had.
posted by Sara C. at 12:43 PM on November 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


And, yes, I am aware that Louisiana isn't exclusively Catholic (maybe not even majority Catholic?) but I do think having a huge cultural identity that comes package with a religious identification is a major part of the collective consciousness, statewide.
posted by Sara C. at 12:45 PM on November 7, 2015


Bringer Tom, do you have any sense of what impact, if any, Vitter's collusion with Helis on the fracking next to Lakeshore high is having on the northshore?

st tammany went for vitter in the primary, eh?
posted by eustatic at 1:34 PM on November 7, 2015


eustatic, it's very hard to say. St. Tammany voters are very red but also very self-interested and all I know is there were a lot of them at the poll today, and I can't figure out any reason why that would be that bodes well for Vitter.

I do know the prostitution problem isn't Vitter's only problem. He also has a Jindal problem, in much the same way Jeb! has a W problem. And this being the NIMBY capital of Louisiana, if there's much awareness that he tried to push fracking here, this is hard base he can't afford to lose.
posted by Bringer Tom at 3:11 PM on November 7, 2015


Sara C. I was raised SBC but went to a Catholic NOLA high school, because even the Baptists here know that in this town founded by Catholics those are the schools you go to for the best secular education. The people who sign my paycheck are Catholic, as are about half of my coworkers.

And I have never gotten the sense, much as the Church might like it to be so, that NOLA Catholics let their religion guide their voting much. There is a nasty stereotype about that which like the nasty stereotypes about certain ethnic groups doesn't really bear out in practice. Some Catholics are very fundamentalist and prone to the same kind of lunacy that some fundie Protestants find seductive, but they are a minority and it's not because they are Catholics. Most Catholics go to Mass every week or even only on Easter and Christmas, they observe the big rituals like weddings, funerals, and confirmation and so on but outside of that they do what they please. And they most certainly don't want a pastor (or priest) in their government. They already have one at the parish (and I don't mean the one with a courthouse).

And outside of NOLA (largely repopulated now with people that are not only not black and democratic, but also aren't Catholic) and Acadiana, the state is pretty much very minority Catholic. The Church did have a bit of a hand when NOLA and the North were cancelling each other out and leaving largely rural (and therefore more fundie) Catholic Acadiana as the deciding block in statewide elections, but that dynamic has been well disrupted and it's not clear how it's gelling out now.
posted by Bringer Tom at 3:23 PM on November 7, 2015 [3 favorites]


And I have never gotten the sense, much as the Church might like it to be so, that NOLA Catholics let their religion guide their voting much.

I think we might be talking past each other and what is meant by the presence of religion in Louisiana politics.

I'm certainly not suggesting that Louisiana Catholics vote the way the pope wants them to or somesuch. (Again, I'm actually *from* Louisiana, lived there the first 18 years of my life, visit several times a year, my entire family of birth still lives there, etc.)

However, Louisiana is even more intensely "bible belt" than even the rest of the South tends to be, and people talk about religion, especially in connection with politics, much more than in the rest of the country.

I mean, only in Louisiana would an Indian-American feel that he had to convert to Catholicism in order to have a political career. And, again, only in Louisiana would the governor feel justified in marshalling prayer rather than public infrastructure.
posted by Sara C. at 3:29 PM on November 7, 2015


Sara, I live here now and have continuously my whole life. Louisiana very definitely isn't the worst of the Bible Belty states; Mississippi makes New Orleans look like New York and Acadiana like Missouri by comparison. North Louisiana is very bible-belty but that has nothing to do with Catholicism and has a lot more to do with the same Protestant fundamentalism that drives things in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Alabama.

Catholicism is a big factor in New Orleans (though a bit less so since Katrina) and Acadiana. But Acadiana is driven much more by cultural and ethnic cues than religion. You can make a very good case that Edwin Edwards got elected on the strength of his Cajun accent after the North and NOLA cancelled out, and I think one of our current runners-up was hoping to pull the same trick. It's not about religion at all; it's about culture and belonging, and religion is just a small part of that.

Of course if you're of east Indian ethnic extraction and trying to force your way into that community, one of the best ways is to use the Church. It's not like you can change your skin color or accent.

As for New Orleans, this has always been a ruthlessly pragmatic town with eras when prostitution and illegal gambling were openly tolerated for decades because tourism, baby. If anything it's much more pragmatic now that we've exchanged fifty to seventy thousand natives for gentrifying interlopers. They probably trend Republican too, since they can afford the inflated real estate prices, but not because they're Catholic.
posted by Bringer Tom at 3:43 PM on November 7, 2015 [3 favorites]


Edwards wins!
posted by octothorpe at 4:58 AM on November 22, 2015 [2 favorites]




During the last legislative session there was a lot of talk on both sides of the aisle about Grover Norquist, noted non-Louisianian who neither ran for nor was elected governor. Some legislators found blue Sesame Street Grover plush toys on their desks as a comment on this.
posted by Bringer Tom at 7:44 AM on November 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Oh, so the monster at the end of the book was Grover Norquist. That makes more sense.

From Etrigan's link above:
The last-minute distraction was just one of the many ways that Jindal helped to doom Vitter’s campaign for governor—which was, at first, so widely expected to succeed that some Louisiana Democrats didn’t want the party to put up a candidate at all.
:headdesk:
posted by Room 641-A at 8:42 AM on November 24, 2015


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