2009 Senate Elections

[tw]

Originally Posted by richlevy

As for Mary Landrieu, the real problem for her opponent would be the completely f***cked up job by the White House. The only way a Republican would win that seat is to seriously badmouth the administration.

Same reasoning did not help the LA Governor. She is not running in a race that, if that logic applied, she should win easily. Polls suggest otherwise.

Once coattails had relevance. In the past 20 years, that has not been true. If you could say the entire Republican party screwed up, then that logic may be valid. However a president does not appear to have the same influence on other elections as was true 30 years ago.

Local opinions by a regional politician on an issue - ie "Mission Accomplished" - caused many states to vote out their "we want more war" representative. IOW I suggest it was not so much George Jr's opinion they were voting against. Many were voting against those who supported a "we want war" agenda or other issues such as corruption.

I don't think the LA election would be based on the administration’s incompetence during Katrina. Voting probably would be more about what "Mary Landrieu did for us" after Katrina. That would suggest why the Governor is not popular but why the Senator may be reelected.