Study of candidates needed as election approaches

Happy New Year! After a brief hiatus, I am back and ready for what is expected to be another memorable election year in the great Pelican State.

But before we get to the 2016 election, let’s emulate the spirit of Christmas past from the classic “A Christmas Carol” and see what happened in 2015.

Over nearly five decades of being involved in Louisiana politics, I have been on the inside of 15 elections, 14 for two U.S. House members for whom I worked, and one for Mayor Bo Williams of Shreveport. The record: 13 wins and two losses. For the past 22 years, I have been on the other side of the street as a member of the news media looking in from the outside.

The 2015 election cycle ranks right up there with one of the most distasteful, disgusting and discouraging of my lifetime both at the state and local levels. Vitriol and money dominated the scene and, in some cases, influenced the outcome of many of the positions on the ballot. Not to mention that many voters were turned off by all the acrimonious antics and did not vote.

At the top of the list was the governor’s race. With Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal being term-limited, it was assumed by most political pundits Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter was the heir-apparent. He had name recognition and millions to spend from his personal campaign fund and a Super PAC, which was supporting his candidacy.

But a funny thing happened on the road to the governor’s mansion. Two viable Republicans – Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne and Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle – decided to challenge the twoterm U.S. senator in an effort to derail his gubernatorial ambitions. It was a political fight for the ages. The gloves came off early in the campaign and the three engaged in a bare-knuckled battle that got down and dirty and became personal. It was Louisiana politics at its worst – or should we say at its best.

Enter little-known Democratic state Rep. John Bel Edwards from the little town of Amite. I had breakfast with him early in the campaign and was impressed with his intelligence and insight into the problems facing our state. He would make a good governor, I thought, but it was unlikely he could win in the blood Red State of Louisiana. I wasn’t the only one who thought so. Some high-profile Democrats tried to talk him out of the race in an effort to keep Vitter from becoming governor. If only I had been visited by the spirit of things to come I could have predicted his victory and added some luster to my tarnished political acumen.

But true to his West Point and military background, Edwards charged into battle against the three Republicans and ran a brilliant campaign. He let Vitter, Dardenne and Angelle duke to out as they realized Edwards would be in the runoff as the lone Democrat, thinking, of course, that the GOP candidate who prevailed in the primary would be the next governor. After all, the last statewide Democrat, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, was defeated in 2014 despite the fact that she had become one of the most powerful senators on Capitol Hill. A Democrat had not been elected to a statewide office since 2008.

When the primary was over, Vitter, battered and bruised, limped into the runoff against Edwards, who received a surprising 40 percent of the vote. Edwards showed no timidity, matching Vitter punch for punch in the debates and in radio and television ads. The ghost of things present haunted Vitter, who had railed against his two fellow Republicans, causing many of their supporters to ignore him in the runoff. When the political dust settled, Edwards had scored a landslide victory, getting 56 percent of the vote.

Is Vitter bitter? Obviously. He not only lost the governor’s race but was so politically damaged he decided not to seek re-election to his U.S. Senate seat, effectively ending his political career. If he had been visited by the spirit of things to come, he would have known his past foibles would re-surface in a knock-down, drag-out governor’s race. And he would have likely eschewed the governor’s race and stayed in what was a safe U.S. Senate seat for him.

Locally, the spotlight was on the race for Caddo District Attorney. It took nearly $1 million from the infamous New York billionaire George Soros, which he dumped into a little Bossier City PAC, but retired Judge James Stewart made history by becoming the first black to be elected Caddo’s DA. His opponent, Assistant District Attorney Dhu Thompson, a Republican, could not match the money. With help from about 18 percent of white voters, Stewart won with 55 percent of the vote.

When all of the campaign finance reports are in, it will likely show there was another record in connection with the DA’s race. Spending more that $1 million on a parishwide race will undoubtedly be a record that will stand for some time. The closest to that I can remember is the $900,000 Republican Jerry Jones spent on his race for mayor in 2006. He lost to Cedric Glover, who with help from white voters, became Shreveport’s first black mayor.

What this year has in store is anybody’s guess. I will need a visit from the spirit of things to come to get a handle on that one.

Lou Gehrig Burnett, an award-winning journalist, has been involved with politics for 44 years and was a congressional aide in Washington, D.C., for 27 years. He also served as executive assistant to former Shreveport Mayor Bo Williams. Burnett is the publisher of the weekly “FaxNet Update” and can be reached at 861-0552 or louburnett@comcast.net.