Democrats channel disappointment into Louisiana Senate race

[RandySF]

Democrats are channeling their post-election disappointment — and pouring buckets of donor cash — into a long-shot bid for the Louisiana Senate seat.

The odds are not good for Louisiana Democrat Foster Campbell, who is facing off against GOP state Treasurer John Kennedy in the runoff on Dec. 10. President-elect Donald Trump just carried the state by 20 percentage points in November, and Kennedy led Campbell 52 percent to 38 percent in a poll this week. And Trump's running mate, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, is scheduled to give Kennedy's base an energy boost by appearing at a rally with Kennedy in New Orleans on Saturday.

But Campbell, a state public service commissioner, has raised $2.5 million over the past month, much of it in small dollar donations from Democrats around the country looking for some way to strike back against Trump. Kennedy raised $1.6 million over the same time frame. Each man had about $1.4 million left in their campaign account.

Campbell brought in $43,000 from small donors from January to Oct. 20; since then, $1.7 million in small donations have poured in as Democrats — like former Obama administration staffers Dan Pfeiffer and Jon Favreau, who recently had Campbell on their podcast — hold up Campbell’s race as the final fight of the 2016 election and hope for an upset.


http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/louisiana-senate-runoff-democrats-232142

[Vogon_Glory]

2. I went around them. I gave directly

Being a Texan who's constantly been disappointed by the lack of national party support, I gave directly to Foster Campbell's campaign. I urge other Democrats to do likewise.

[hrmjustin]

3. Well the last poll has the goper up 14%.

Might not want to waste money on a lost cause.

[hrmjustin]

7. To lose by 7% instead?

[hrmjustin]

10. The money wasted on that race could be used for races we can win in the future.

I do support Democrats but am a realist. He was never going to win in Louisiana.

[Ken Burch]

9. In Louisiana, even THAT would be progress.

If nothing else, it can help with voter registration or (if need be) re-registration efforts for the next cycle there.

[hrmjustin]

11. The money wasted on that race could be used for races we can win in the future.

[SaschaHM]

6. Nothing matters when there is an opportunity to critique Democrats.

Trust me, if the Dem leadership spent 10 million on the race, the same folks would be here complaining about them wasting money and that's why they should be fired.

[andym]

5. Hate to say it, but the Democratic Party needs it's own Lee Atwater types

Last edited Sat Dec 3, 2016, 05:36 PM - Edit history (1)

The GOP has many GOP Atwater stand ins doing yeoman's work around the country with negative ads. That's how they defeated Russ Feingold in Wisconsin even though he was up 10% on October 1. I give credit to Hillary Clinton's campaign for really playing on Trump's negatives. Unfortunately, her own negatives were high due to a lot of work by GOP operatives. A ton of negative ads might help Campbell in LA.