Bayou Cane station sees response drop
April 10, 2013Governor’s tax reprieve opens door for dialogue
April 10, 2013
A Republican congressman has announced that he is challenging Mary Landrieu for her U.S. Senate seat.
Dr. Bill Cassidy (R-Baton Rouge) announced last week that he has entered the 2014 race, the first of several challengers expected to run against the incumbent.
Landrieu (D-La.) has served in the Senate since 1996. Although she is a Democrat, she is considered one of the more conservative members of that group.
Cassidy has begun his campaign by linking Landrieu to President Barack Obama.
“I’m running against Senator Mary Landrieu who’s been there for 18 years and against the most powerful man in the world, Barack Obama,” Cassidy said, in a videotaped announcement. “President Obama wants Senator Landrieu re-elected. She supports President Obama 97 percent of the time, and has given him a blank check for his wasteful spending. Now Mary’s a nice person, but she’s changed. She used to support a balanced budget amendment but now she flip flopped and she opposes.”
Cassidy accuses Landrieu of supporting earmarks and frivolous federal spending, noting that she was a deciding vote for Obama’s health reform bill.
“President Obama does not want me, a conservative Republican, representing the views of the people of Louisiana, to serve in the Senate,” said Cassidy, a medical doctor who studied at LSU. “But if elected, I will work and vote to balance the federal budget, supporting a balanced budget amendment so that government lives within its means, as does the typical Louisiana family.”
Cassidy has been busy raising money for what could be a tough campaign – Landrieu has enjoyed marked popularity in the state – and said last week that he has about $500,000 in his warchest.
Local Republicans have so far not commented publicly on a race that could become crowded.
State Rep. Gordon Dove (R-Houma) co-hosted a fund-raiser for Cassidy’s congressional seat, prior to the senate announcement.
Dove has not yet expressed formal support for Cassidy’s senate candidacy, but is impressed by his work as a congressman.
“He’s taken a big interest in Terrebonne Parish, he is down here all the time trying to learn,” Dove said. “We are trying to get him acclimated on what needs to be done here.”
