Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Runoff to select final Senate seat
GOP candidate favored in Louisiana race.
bombshell.
GOP state Treasurer John Kennedy is the clear front-runner in the runoff against Democrat Foster Campbell, a state utility regulator and cattle farmer. A recent poll from Baton Rouge-based Southern Media and Opinion Research showed Kennedy with a 14-point lead.
Republicans will have a slim 52-48 Senate majority next year if they hold the Louisiana seat, which is open because GOP incumbent David Vitter didn’t seek re-election. The two runoff candidates, both in Louisiana politics for decades, were the top votegetters in the November primary among 24 contenders for the seat.
A former state senator before his current elected position with the Public Service Commission, Campbell is a populist known for his rants against “Big Oil,” his push to lessen the costs of prisoner phone calls and his criticism of utilities’ spending on executive perks.
Campbell tells voters he “won’t be in anybody’s shirt pocket” in Washington. He talks openly about manmade climate change. He opposes efforts to repeal President Barack Obama’s health law. He supports a minimum wage hike. He’s also a decidedly Louisiana Democrat — strongly opposed to abortion and supportive of gun rights.
The Oxford-educated Kennedy, a former state revenue secretary and lawyer, is in his fifth term as treasurer. In that role, he’s repeatedly clashed with Louisiana’s governors on financial issues, raising his own profile in the process.
Kennedy highlights his support for Trump and Campbell’s vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton. The Republican contender got in-person support Saturday from Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who headlined a New Orleans rally and fundraiser for Kennedy on the final day of early voting.
Pence urged voters to back the state treasurer, saying he and the president-elect support Kennedy “100 percent” because he’ll be a strong partner to advance Trump’s agenda in Congress.
Kennedy pledges to guard people’s money “like it was my own,” and one of the regular features of his speeches involves listing government-financed contracts that he calls outrageous spending, like millions to “study the effects of Swedish massage on bunny rabbits.”
Campbell has hit Kennedy for changing his positions during two prior Senate bids, running first in 2004 as a Democrat who supported John Kerry for president and the most recent two times as a Republican.
With Republicans already securing a majority in the Senate, Louisiana’s race has drawn modest attention. In many political circles, the seat is assumed to be safely in GOP hands, as Trump won 58 percent of the vote in Louisiana.
Also to be settled in Louisiana’s Saturday vote are the country’s last two U.S. House seats. In the 3rd District, two Republicans are vying for the job: Scott Angelle and Clay Higgins. The 4th District race is between Republican state Rep. Mike Johnson and Democrat Marshall Jones.