Democrat Edwards wins Louisiana’s election for governor

If nothing else, David Vitter simplified the 2016 U.S. Senate election in Louisiana with his announcement Saturday night after losing the governor’s race that he won’t try for a third term in the Senate next year. But even by those standards, the circumstances were unusual, with a highly unpopular Republican incumbent, Gov. Bobby Jindal, and an election so full of Louisiana twists it would have made Huey Long whistle into his Ramos gin fizz.

Voters’ rejection of Vitter in the Saturday election was a stunning turn of events for the USA senator, who has been a political powerhouse in the state for years and started his campaign almost two years ago as the race’s front-runner.

U.S. Senator David Vitter announced during his concession speech on Saturday that he will not be seeking re-election next year. A 1988 West Point graduate, Edwards served as an Army Ranger, among other duties, during an eight-year military career.

Republican state Rep. Rob Shadoin of Ruston, who crossed party lines to support Edwards, was among those attending his press conference.

“We went to Vietnam and fought and we let those refugees in”, said William Martin of New Orleans, 68, a Vietnam veteran who was among a steady stream of voters at Mater Dolorosa Catholic Church despite a steady rain.

The win is a breakthrough for liberals as Democrats have been shut out of most statewide and Congressional races in the Deep South for a decade. Vitter could seek re-election to the Senate in 2016, though Republican colleagues are hardly enthusiastic about that scenario, concerned his unpopularity could throw the seat to a Democratic opponent.

Vitter said Edwards was misrepresenting a record filled with votes supporting teacher unions and trial lawyers and opposing business interests and education reform efforts. Charles Boustany and John Fleming, among others. Mr. Edwards said Mr. Vitter had failed on both levels, when his phone number was found among the records of a Washington, D.C., madam in 2007.

Republican David Vitter wants voters to forgive his sex scandal in his latest campaign.

The Washington Post also reported an acrimonious feud between Jindal, who recently ended his presidential campaign, and Vitter, whom Jindal refused to endorse, helped secure Vitter’s political demise. Certainly Vitter was hobbled by Jindal’s unpopularity. “I will never embarrass you”. The new residents of Plano, The Woodlands, Katy and Round Rock, Texas, Peachtree City, Georgia, Glendale, Arizona and Olive Branch, Mississippi, as well as other locales in the soon-to-be-growing Louisiana diaspora, will be snickering in relief over the next four years.

“I’m eager to refocus on the important work of the United States Senate”, he said.

Charges and counter-charges involving thugs, terrorists, prostitutes and spies have dominated the raucous final stretch of a Louisiana governor’s race that, just three months ago, was a ho-hum affair.

The race has also been a slugfest of attack ads and one of the most expensive governor’s races in Louisiana history, with at least $30 million spent by candidates and outside groups.