LA-Sen: Baker Declines to Challenge Landrieu

Rep. Richard Baker, a Republican representing the Baton Rouge-based 6th District of Louisiana, has decided not to challenge Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu next year.  From PoliticsLA

Baker says he has been taking meetings with party leaders to discuss the idea, and has left the possibility open in press interviews. But now he reveals that he is happy in the House, where a Democratic majority has managed to put only small dent in his seniority – he originally took the lead on Louisiana's housing woes in the wake of Katrina and brokered a deal on a water-resources bill last month that had been stalled in Congress for seven years. “The Republicans, state and federal, see the Landrieu race as a competitive one and, at the moment, I'm not so sure there's a candidate out there,” Baker says. “But I can tell you it is nothing I intend to take on.

Not too surprising, given Baker's sluggish fundraising this year.  The full court press by national Republicans returns to “Democratic” State Treasurer John Kennedy, who, as you may recall, ran to succeed retiring Sen. John Breaux in 2004 and earned only 15% of the vote.  I hope he doesn't run, because you could just imagine all those gleeful Republican talking heads squealing in delight about how they managed to get someone named “John Kennedy” to abandon the Democratic Party.

UPDATE: John Kennedy also announced today that he will seek re-election for his State Treasurer post this fall.  However, I do not see how such a move could prevent him from starting up a Senate campaign after November, and I have not seen any statements ruling that possibility out as of yet.

17 thoughts on “LA-Sen: Baker Declines to Challenge Landrieu”

  1. Nothing in Kennedy’s statement says anything that would preclude him from running for Senate after his 2007 re-election race.

  2. been saying it’s uter bullshit all the stuff Repubicans were saying about their having a strong candidate to seriously challenge Landrieu. Kennedy is a Democrat, he’s not going to challenge Landrieu, who’s now the most powerful Democrat in Louisiana, he has some loyalty, even if he is conservative. Republicans last chance is Boustany, and I don’t see him running unless Chris John or Hunter Lundy jump in the race against and make him nervous.

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