Three-term Congressman Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville, announced today that he’s running for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican David Vitter.
Melancon, 61, former president of the American Sugar Cane League, a lobbying group, described himself as “pro-life, pro-gun Southern Democrat.”
The announcement was made in an Internet video mailed this morning to his supporters.
When I heard that Melancon was going to commit himself to the race, I was actually a bit surprised. Melancon told Democratic leaders that he’d challenge Vitter back in June and make an announcement a few weeks later. The radio silence since then made me speculate that he was having second thoughts, so locking him down is a major piece of good news for the DSCC. Two polls showed Melancon within striking distance earlier in the year; an R2K/DailyKos poll had Melancon trailing Vitter by only 48-41, while PPP pegged the race at 44-32. Vitter’s vulnerabilities aside, Melancon will have to run the race of his life in order to get over the hump in conservative Louisiana.
Our attention will also turn to the open seat race in the House that Melancon is leaving behind. As we outlined in detail back in June, both parties have decent benches of state legislators in the district, not to mention other downballot office-holders for the DCCC to pick over. No candidate has emerged yet for Team Blue, but I’m sure we’ll see some action on both sides of the aisle in the coming weeks.
I can’t stand Vitter and I really think Melancon could knock him out with the right campaign. This will probably be our best chance at winning this seat because by 2016 Diaper Dan gate will surely be forgotten.
I admit to a combination of doubt that he can win and indifference to whether he does or not.
I’m sure others will have different opinions.
Does anyone actually believe that Melancon can beat Vitter in a blood red state like Louisiana while Blanche Lincoln is likely to get knocked off as an incumbent next door? At the same time, we are basically giving Republicans another free House seat that we can ill afford to lose when we have so many incumbents that are fighting uphill battles to hold on.
Hopefully we can get someone great to run for his House seat.
I don’t think he has much of a chance, but I hope he wins obviously.
Will certainly be one Democrat I wouldnt mind seeing win a Senate seat.
Come on! Terrorists aren’t going to attack Louisiana. He should worry about keeping Louisiana safe from hurricanes.
He should at least get it done by a pro, rather than using a box of “Miss Clairol” from Wal-Mart.
but I’m always in favour of taking out Republicans with whatever’s at hand, particularly a personage as repugnant as Vitter.
The video has a good spiel (though it seemed to me like his accent was coming and going).
This house seat is lost in redirecting anyways. What’s one house seat, in a state that the Dems will pick up one anyway in 2010.
This is the one and only chance to seriously contest this seat. It’s now or never. Why would you anyone advocate leaving it on the table?
Vitter could win big, or he could get beat. We will never know, if we don’t try. Whatever happened to 50-state strategy??
The only poll on this race showed Melancon within striking distance.
I honestly don’t see a downside to this.
In a better climate for Dems (like 2006), Melancon would probably have a 50/50 or better shot to take out Vitter, but I don’t think Melancon has much of a shot this time around. I guess he’s just taking a shot at it since he knows he’s on the chopping block come redistricting time.
This is great news!!!!! Go Melancon!
that Melancon is pro-life, let us remember that as of 2005, Louisiana was the 2nd most pro-life state in the Union. This is not a state where a pro-choice candidate can win statewide, unless there’s a MAJOR scandal embroiling the other guy. As we’ve seen, even enjoying the company of prostitutes while wearing diapers is NOT considered enough of a major scandal, else he would’ve resigned a while ago.
Also, Obama did worse than Kerry in Louisiana, one of the very few states (along with Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee) in which that happened. It isn’t a state that’s trending Democratic either.