Vitter, Melancon advance to Nov. 2 election

Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter and his chief Democratic challenger, Rep. Charlie Melancon, easily won their party’s primaries Saturday, setting up what will likely be a nasty battle for Vitter’s job in the Nov. 2 general election.

In a victory speech to supporters Saturday night, Melancon called Vitter “hostile to women.” He cited a Vitter vote against an equal-pay law and news reports that Vitter had kept an aide who dealt with women’s issues on his staff for two years after he was arrested for a violent attack on a woman.

Trailing Vitter in most recent surveys, Melancon called for the incumbent to debate him before the election and accused him of avoiding forums where he can’t control the questions.

Vitter’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for an interview with the senator and issued a statement continuing a major theme of his campaign – that Melancon is too liberal. “Louisiana voters will get to choose between the current Obama policies of endless bailouts, failed stimulus, massive debt, and government-dominated health care, represented by Charlie Melancon, or the common sense conservative alternatives I’ve been advocating,” it said.

With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Vitter had 84,645 votes, 88 percent, in the Republican contest (in which only Republicans could vote) against retired state Supreme Court Justice Chet Traylor with 7 percent and physician Nick Accardo with 5 percent.

Melancon had 73,730 votes, 70 percent of those cast, in the Democratic primary, open to Democrats and independents, against Neeson Chauvin, with 19 percent, and Cary Deaton, with 12 percent.

The Senate primary marked Vitter’s first election since a 2007 prostitution scandal and more recent questions about his judgment in handling the employment of the aide.

Melancon and Vitter will be on the Nov. 2 ballot with the winner of the state’s Libertarian Primary, where Randall Todd Hayes was leading Anthony Gentile. There also will be nine other candidates – independents or members of other parties.

Primaries also were being held in four of the state’s seven congressional districts. Key races were in the New Orleans-based 2nd District and in southeastern Louisiana’s 3rd District, where Melancon was giving up his seat to challenge Vitter.