The reasons why Mary Landrieu is departing the world of politics

15th December 2014   ·   0 Comments

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer

Almost immediately when Mary Landrieu concluded her concession speech with the words, “You haven’t heard the last from me,” an excited speculation raced through the demoralized crowd at the Roosevelt Hotel on Saturday, December 6. Would a bid for Louisiana governor lay in the ousted U.S. senator’s future?

Could the end of her 18-year tenure in the Senate mirror its beginning? After all, Mary Landrieu only was convinced to run for the office vacated by John Breaux after a disappointing third-place finish in the 1995 Louisiana Governor’s race. Baton Rouge had been the then-La. Treasurer’s ambition, only to be thwarted by a post-Edwards GOP tide matched with a surging African-American vote for Cleo Fields that narrowly cost her a run off slot.

On the following Tuesday, Senator Landrieu dashed such hopes, declaring that she had “NO” desire to run for another office.

Her electoral potential for next year’s governor’s race was hardly an idle hope of her most loyal supporters. She remains the most influential Democrat in Louisiana, despite her 12-point loss to Congressman Bill Cassidy. Whether Mary Landrieu would have defeated Mike Foster 19 years ago remains a mystery, but the essentials of the statewide name recognition and a strong fundraising base that made Landrieu a natural candidate for the U.S. Senate the following year, are the same that remain in place for the 59-year-old exiting Senator today.

Moreover, as her supporters urged, Mary Landrieu had nothing to lose by running against GOP gubernatorial frontrunner Sen. David Vitter, Lt.. Gov. Jay Dar­denne, and PSC Commissioner Scott Angelle. Federal ethics laws prevent outgoing members of Congress from lobbying their colleagues for a period of one year after leaving office. Landrieu could not speak to her colleagues on any issue, for pay at least, until 12 months had elapsed. The Louisiana gubernatorial primary is only 10 months away.

Perfect timing. Win or lose, Landrieu would win. Either she would fulfill her early ambition to occupy the Governor’s Mansion, or she would enjoy the consolation of a potential $1 million per year lobbying fee that the pro-oil Democrat would earn for access to her more liberal Democratic colleagues. Having Senatorial environmentalists trust an advocate of your industry is a valuable commodity, which will still be as valuable in 2016.

Perhaps, though, her supporters were overly ambitious, and Landrieu read the political “tea leaves” in a different way from her backers. Instead of being a strong candidate against David Vitter in a runoff, perhaps the out-going U.S. senator concluded that Democrats were doomed for the next generation in statewide races no matter how weak — or scandal-prone — their Republi­can opponents might be.

On December 6, federal politics dominated local, Louisiana politics in a fashion not seen in Louisiana since the 19th-century. To turn former Speaker Tip O’Neil’s adage on its head, “All politics was national.”

In no race was this truism better displayed than the Public Service Commission contest between incumbent Eric Skrmetta and his challenger Forrest Wright. Skrmetta trailed Wright in the primary, usually a fatal condition for an incumbent. Negative advertising had pegged the PSC Chairman as beholden to the utilities he regulated, and Wright as the reformer who would not take dollars from Entergy and its industry peers.

And then Skrmetta, never known for being a particularly partisan Republican, opened fire on Wright for connections to President Barack Obama—in a local PSC race. The curious point is that both men were registered Republicans, and Skrmetta had extensive Democratic and minority support. (Most of the Black Press, and quite a few of the City’s African-American political organizations, were backing the Gentilly-native, and had long positive associations with Skrmetta’s work on behalf of the ratepayers of the City of New Orleans—technically not his responsibility, but often his focus.)

There were two crucial differences between the two PSC candidates. Wright, as the former staff head for the Alliance for Af­fordable Energy, was a strong supporter of solar and other alternative energy solutions. He was also a former Democrat who openly supported Barack Obama in 2008. In the heavily Republican PSC District 1, ever backing Obama amounted to the proverbial “kiss of death.”

To answer Wright’s avalanche of negative ads on Skrmetta’s industry connections, the PSC incumbent simply showed a younger, bearded Wright advocating for Obama. And, that made all the difference. Skrmetta drastically improved his primary showing, winning on December 6, 51 percent-49 percent over Wright.

Perhaps Mary Landrieu sought not to add another defeat that might make her less marketable to Washington lobbying firms. Perhaps, she seeks to wait three years, and run for Mayor of New Orleans, succeeding her term-limited brother to be the city’s first woman mayor. (She won over 80 percent of the vote in Orleans Parish, after all.)

Maybe, Landrieu saw that she first entered office over Woody Jenkins 18 years ago by 5,788 votes, less than one vote per precinct in a year that Bill Clinton won Louisiana. Lacking the power of seniority and incumbency, perhaps she has reasoned that time made the Governorship a step too far.

Or perhaps, Mary Landrieu concluded the same as former Governor Edwin W. Edwards. When asked in the wake of his meager 38 percent against Republican Garrett Graves in the 6th Congressional District, a reporter asked what he would have done differently. Edwards replied, “Not run.”

This article originally published in the December 15, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.