Cassidy Defeats Landrieu to Extend GOP Control of Senate
POSTED BY: Jongsstraw
UPDATED: Sunday, November 3, 2024 16:33
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December 7, 2014
Associated Press
Quote:
In the last race of the 2014 election cycle, Rep. Bill Cassidy easily trounced incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu on Saturday in a heated Louisiana runoff race that expanded Republican control of the Senate in January and made the longtime dominance of the Democratic Party in the south a distant memory.
"God Bless America," Cassidy told cheering supporters at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Baton Rouge. "We have a lot of work to do."
"This victory belongs to you," he said. Cassidy was surrounded by his wife and family.
"This victory happened because the people in Louisiana voted for a government that serves you and doesn't tell us what to do."
The race was called for Cassidy, who had served three terms in the House, within a half-hour of the polls closing. He was ahead of the three-term Landrieu, 57 percent to 43 percent, with 98 percent of the votes counted, according to C-SPAN.
The runoff was required because neither candidate won 50 percent of the vote in the Nov. 4 election.
Cassidy, 57, is an associate professor of medicine at Louisiana State University.
He became the ninth Republican to capture a previously Democratic seat in this year's elections — pushing the GOP majority in the Senate to 54 seats.
"This was a referendum on the president," debate expert and pollster Matt Towery said Saturday. "The president's approval rating is low, even in Louisiana, and it was just inescapable for Landrieu.
She could not escape the vortex that took everybody down," Towery said.
Incoming Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was among many Republicans who praised Cassidy's victory.
"I want to congratulate Bill Cassidy in his runoff election victory and welcome him to the Senate Republican Conference in the 114th Congress," the Kentucky Republican said in a statement.
McConnell noted Cassidy's support last month of the $5.3 billion Keystone XL pipeline, which passed the House. The Kentucky Republican described the project as "shovel-ready" and "job-creating."
"I look forward to Sen.-elect Cassidy’s help when the new Republican majority passes the Keystone jobs bill early next year," he said.
Cassidy will replace Landrieu on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, "where he’ll be able to continue his work on developing North America's natural resources and jobs while helping to secure our nation’s energy independence," McConnell added.
She had chaired the panel.
Landrieu's defeat after 18 years in the Senate dealt a crushing blow to a New Orleans political dynasty. Her brother, Mitch, is the city's mayor — and the Bayou State now has no woman who has been elected to office statewide for the first time in 54 years.
More broadly, Cassidy's victory made Democratic dominance in a region spanning from Texas to North Carolina a distant memory.
In 1962, every senator and a huge majority of House members from the south was a Democrat, Politico reports. In January, Democrats will control 39 of 149 Southern congressional seats, fewer than at any time since Reconstruction.
Republicans also won each of the seven governor’s races in the South this year and increased their majorities in state legislatures across the region.
Two incumbent Democrats, in Arkansas and North Carolina, were among those to lose their Senate races last month. Three other Democrats lost Senate races in southern states.
Landrieu trailed in every poll during the runoff. A survey this week from WPA Research showed her down by 24 points. Cassidy led by more than 20 points in the RealClearPolitics average of polls in recent weeks.
She spent the final days of her campaign crisscrossing the state and attacking Cassidy for returning to Washington for House votes on Wednesday and Thursday, the Times-Picayune reports. He made few appearances during the runoff campaign.
But Cassidy was back in Louisiana on Friday, campaigning with Iowa SenNOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Defeating a legacy gal like Mary and removing her from the family business of living off the public dole was actually closer than it ought to have been. Many were predicting a 20 pt win, but I guess a last minute flurry of ballot box stuffing made it a more respectable 12 pt loss.
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Last two weeks Mary The Vote Whore went full-blown race card against Cassidy.
Didn't work too well for her as she hit some new lows in ethics for a sitting Senator.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
Last two weeks Mary The Vote Whore went full-blown race card against Cassidy.
Didn't work too well for her as she hit some new lows in ethics for a sitting Senator.
Which is saying A LOT !!!
Heard a nugget today which I've not bothered to fact check, but it still sounds interesting.
Not 1 Senator, who voted for ObamaCare, kept their seat in the 2014 election.
( Obviously, not all were UP for election this go around )
But I did find this...
only half of the Senators who voted to pass the Affordable Care Act will still be in office in 2015, when the new members are sworn in.
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-12-07/by-the-numbers-h
alf-of-the-senators-who-voted-for-obamacare-will-be-gone-in-2015
interesting.
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Tar and feather the bastages!
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Another RINO waddles into the Senate. The Conservative in the November race didn't make it.
Cassidy only rates 85% at ACU.
http://ratings.conservative.org/acu-ratings?tid=1&field_house_lawm
aker_tid=12&field_state_lawmaker_tid=All
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Another RINO waddles into the Senate. The Conservative in the November race didn't make it.
Cassidy only rates 85% at ACU.
http://ratings.conservative.org/acu-ratings?tid=1&field_house_lawm
aker_tid=12&field_state_lawmaker_tid=All
He's a huge supporter of the Keystone Pipeline, he's OK in my book.
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Another RINO waddles into the Senate. The Conservative in the November race didn't make it.
Cassidy only rates 85% at ACU.
Better to have an obama democrat there?
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Quote:
Originally posted by whozit:
He's a huge supporter of the Keystone Pipeline, he's OK in my book.
I'd pay real money to see that book.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Jongsstraw:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Another RINO waddles into the Senate. The Conservative in the November race didn't make it.
Cassidy only rates 85% at ACU.
Better to have an obama democrat there?
Train is still headed over the edge of the washed out bridge, but at a slower speed.
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