That's the headline from an article posted by Joe Cunningham at RedState this morning. It's a careful post-mortem about how the wheels came off the 'outsider' campaign of Republican businessman Eddie Rispone in a deep red state like Louisiana. It highlights some lessons to be learned, but it's too introspective, imho, and does little to illustrate a 40,000 foot view.
Incumbent Democratic governor John Bel Edwards won by 40,000 votes in a 51-49 race with over 1.5 million votes cast. Republican businessman Eddie Rispone lost. That is true. Leftists are sporting wood at the news, but this is less of a Trumpian disaster many think it is, and more of an outlier. Why?
Just last month, there was a big election in Louisiana.
From The Epoch Times:
"Five Republican statewide elected officials on the ballot won reelection to new four-year terms: Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, Attorney General Jeff Landry, Treasurer John Schroder, Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain and Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon. Republican Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin was forced into a runoff."(Ardoin won a full 4 year term Saturday)
Bel Edwards(D) also was forced into a run-off when he was unable to top 50 percent of the vote in the six-candidate field. It's not like the guy was a rock star, but he was the incumbent, and a more traditional 'Blue Dog' Democrat. For example:
"Once in office, Edwards demonstrated his opposition to gun restrictions, signed one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans, and has recently dismissed the impeachment effort as a distraction."Whether (R) or (D), in a red state like Louisiana, that carries positive percentage points in itself.
So, where was the schism? Like much of the South, Louisiana is a 'down home' state. Congressman Ralph Abraham(R) was their boy who wanted to be governor. Rispone was the carpet bagger who parachuted in from out-of-town with a bunch of cash in his pocket. The Rispone primary campaign against Abraham quickly got nasty, and that was a recipe for disaster in the general election against Bel Edwards. As Cunningham's article correctly observes:
"Voters along the I-20 corridor in Louisiana, which is Abraham’s congressional district, didn’t show up for Rispone. It’s home to Abraham. It’s his family, his friends, and his people… And Rispone turned them all off."The 40,000 foot view is that an 'outsider businessman' campaign worked for Trump nationwide, but in the microcosm of down home Louisiana, 'that dog won't hunt.'
However, the Louisiana legislature is solidly Republican with a veto-proof majority, and Bel Edwards is the only statewide elected Democrat in Louisiana, so let's keep our heads, and call him what he is: an outlier.
