National
Journal Group
Learn more about our publications and sign up for a free trial.
E-Mail Alerts
Get notified the moment your favorite features are updated.
Need A Reprint?
Click here for details on reprints, permissions and back issues.
Advertise With Us
Details on advertising with National Journal Group -- both online and in print -- can be found in our online media kit.
Go Wireless
Get daily political updates on your handheld computer.
|
Last Updated June 22, 2005
Louisiana's junior senator is David Vitter, a Republican elected in 2004. He grew up in the New Orleans area, the son of a Chevron petroleum engineer, graduated from Harvard and Tulane law school and was a Rhodes Scholar. He was a business attorney and taught law at Tulane and Loyola. Vitter was elected in 1991 to the state House, the successor to former Ku Klux Klansman and state legislator David Duke's seat. There he passed a term-limits bill through a reluctant state legislature. Slim and boyish-looking, he is noted for his ability to irritate other politicians; many were enraged by his crusade for term limits, and a popular sheriff sued him three times after Vitter criticized his ethics. He ran for Congress and won in a May 1999 special election after the abrupt retirement of 1st District Congressman Bob Livingston. Livingston was the Appropriations Committee chairman until Newt Gingrich was forced to retire as speaker three days after the 1998 election; he quickly rounded up the votes and became Speaker-designate. Six weeks later, as the House was debating impeachment, Livingston confessed that he had had affairs and stunned everyone by announcing that he was resigning, even as he called on Bill Clinton to do so. Many Republicans jumped into the race, but the chief fear of Louisiana and national Republicans was that David Duke would run and make it into the runoff. The establishment choice was David Treen, 70, who won four terms in the House starting in 1972 and was elected governor in 1979. In contrast, Vitter said, "We need a younger congressman like me, so we can start building up the seniority we lost when Bob Livingston resigned." Treen, with 25%, and Vitter, with 22%, advanced to the runoff. Duke, unnervingly close to making the runoff, finished third with 19%. Low turnout was probably a factor in deciding this contest, as Vitter rallied his troops and won 51%-49%. In the House, Vitter had the most conservative voting record in the delegation and one of the most conservative in the House. After enactment in 2000 of the bill to require more disclosure of political activity by Section 527 tax-exempt groups, Vitter sought to relax the new rules, arguing they were burdensome at the state and local level; a scaled back version was approved in 2002. He enacted easier access to prescription drug coverage for military retirees and advocated aggressive controls of HMOs. When the House debated the education bill in 2001, it passed his amendment to require secondary schools that take federal money to allow military recruiters to visit the schools. Vitter became a vigorous advocate of a national missile defense. Vitter twice won reelection in the heavily Republican, suburban New Orleans district with at least 80% of the vote. He considered running for governor in 2003, but decided not to. In December 2003, Senator John Breaux, once the youngest member of Congress, announced he would not seek a fourth term. Two days later Vitter said he was running. Wooden in manner, a self-described loner and highly conservative, the suburban Vitter was the stylistic opposite of Breaux, a gregarious dealmaker and noted centrist from Cajun country who was a major force for reform of entitlements and health care. But the state party and national Republicans worked hard to clear the field for Vitter, viewing him as the strongest possible candidate thanks to his suburban political base and his habit of traveling the state to announce projects secured from his perch on Appropriations. He was also familiar in Cajun country after his well-publicized opposition to an Indian casino in southwestern Louisiana. On the Democratic side, three serious candidates joined the race: Congressman Chris John, a native of Crowley, the town which produced not only Breaux but Congressman and later Governor Edwin Edwards; two-term state Treasurer John Kennedy; state Representative Arthur Morrell, an African-American from New Orleans. There was little doubt that Vitter would win the state's unique Election Day primary against a divided Democratic field; the real issue for Democrats was holding him below the 50%-plus-one threshold necessary to avoid a December runoff. Vitter ran as a strong supporter of George W. Bush and called for making Bush's tax cuts permanent, new job creation and medical malpractice reform. He campaigned as a conservative who opposed abortion, gay marriage and gun ownership restrictions. He said he best represented "mainstream Louisiana values"; he painted John as an out-of-touch Washington liberal who was close to John Kerry. John, the Democratic frontrunner who had Breaux's endorsement, responded by referring to Vitter as a Republican Party puppet and strove to distance himself from Kerry's presidential campaign - a wise move in a state that Bush carried with 57% in November. Sugar was an important issue, as it was during Senator Mary Landrieu's 2002 reelection campaign. Louisiana is the prime cane sugar producing state and worries about being undercut by cheap imports; Landrieu used to her advantage a report, later proved to be false, that the Bush administration had agreed with the Mexican government to double the amount of sugar that could be imported from Mexico. In 2004, Vitter broke with the Bush administration over the Central American Free Trade Agreement, opposing it because it did not exempt sugar imports from the deal. Vitter ran some of the best and most creative television ads of the election cycle. He managed to make light of his public image as a stiff politician through the use of several humorous commercials, including one involving his daughter's home movies. John, meanwhile, failed to gain momentum and was caught in the crossfire between Vitter on the right and Kennedy and Morrell on the left. With Vitter leading in the polls going into November, the Democratic candidates began scrambling to hold him below the all-important 50% threshold. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee assisted their efforts by spending more than $1.5 million in attack ads criticizing Vitter's positions on prescription drug reimportation and Social Security. It wasn't enough. Vitter won the race outright with 51%; he became the first Republican in 121 years to represent Louisiana in the Senate. John was the leading Democratic vote-getter with 29 percent to 15% for Kennedy and 3% for Morrell. George W. Bush's strong performance helped Vitter, but Vitter ran strongly on his own, winning Mississippi River parishes that Bush lost, carrying nearly all of Louisiana north of Baton Rouge and posting large margins in the New Orleans suburbs. In populous St. Tammany Parish, which he represented in Congress, Vitter won by more than 5-1; his 60,000-vote margin there was more than enough to erase John's 25,000-vote advantage in New Orleans and Orleans Parish.
Committees
National Journal Group offers both print and electronic reprint services, as well as permissions for academic use, photocopying and republication. Click here to order, or call us at 877-394-7350. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NEW FEATURE
[ Site Index | Staff | Privacy Policy | E-Mail Alerts ]
[ Reprints And Back Issues | Content Licensing ]
[ Make NationalJournal.com Your Homepage ]
[ About National Journal Group Inc. ]
[ Employment Opportunities ]
Copyright 2011 by National Journal Group Inc.
The Watergate · 600 New Hampshire Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20037
202-739-8400 · fax 202-833-8069
NationalJournal.com is an Atlantic Media publication.
