Earlier this week, Kennedy took a pass on running
for the state’s top job, disheartening some hoping to dump Edwards. Today, Abraham,
after saying for months he gave serious consideration to taking on Edwards, made
the plunge.
Epitomizing his penchants both for pettiness and
hypocrisy, Edwards commented “[f]or the sake of the people of Louisiana, it is
my hope that he seriously considers whether or not he is capable of running for
governor while fulfilling his duties in Washington, DC.” Of course, Edwards ran
for governor while a state representative, and he seemed unconcerned at the
time about whether he could do that job while splitting time with campaigning for
two years.
In Abraham, the race receives someone largely ideologically similar to Kennedy. While his American Conservative Union scorecard lifetime voting number of 82 falls about 10 points below the rest of the state’s Republican delegation (with 100 signaling a perfectly conservative set of votes), it actually slightly exceeds what Kennedy rang up in his first year.
Abraham represents the most far-flung
congressional district in America outside of states with just a single House
member, which incorporates all but the western edge of the state and the
southernmost coast. Taking advantage of that, for his recently-concluded
reelection campaign he produced generic advertisements
promoting a general image of conservatism, character, and competence that
played in media markets with a majority of the state’s population.
That tactic already may have started to build his
middling name recognition. Months
ago, over a fifth of statewide polled voters couldn’t tell whether they
would vote for him over Edwards because they didn’t know him. In that matchup,
Edwards led 51-29 percent, which brought both good and bad news for the incumbent
– good that he could get above 51 percent, but bad because were Abraham better known
likely Edwards would lose support, and any incumbent who can’t pull over 45 percent
in a head-up contest is in trouble.
As Abraham began running the ads, another
poll put Edwards’ advantage at 48-35. But this was with two-thirds of
respondents saying they didn’t even know of Abraham.
Thus, Abraham’s first task is to build wider
recognition. If he succeeds, not only does he have a solid conservative record
more in tune with the state’s voters, but he can match Edwards on the distractive
issues – the ones that Edwards will emphasize to distract from a tax-and-spend
governorship that has delivered one of the worst economic records in the country
and promises more of the same things that have put Louisiana behind pretty much
every other state in economic and quality-of-life terms.
Abraham actually presents better credentials on
these distractive issues. He has more consistent pro-life
and anti-gun
control credentials than does Edwards, who also during his previous campaign
reminded anyone paying attention of his Army service. But, guess what, Abraham
also is a veteran and, while Edwards did more sightseeing than business on three
trips abroad, Abraham’s overseas travels often feature a heavy dose of his
providing humanitarian assistance.
Edwards knows this, hence his vituperative
statement upon learning of Abraham’s entrance. As long as Abraham can secure
the backing to disseminate information about himself, he presents a serious
threat to another four years of Edwards.
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