Gret Stet Goober race indicators remain favorable for Democrat John Bel Edwards. A new poll shows him at 51% with 38% of the honky white vote. Sorry for going all Sixties on y’all there. If the election were held today, the undecided vote would break for him 54-38. Early voting was VERY strong for Edwards with a substantial increase in African-American turnout. The problem is that we’re 5 days out and Edwards *may* have peaked. It’s not a bad thing if he holds his vote but there are signs that Team Vitter may be getting its shit together.
Vitter will be running on a xenophobic, anti-Syrian immigrant theme for the last week of the campaign. He’s hoping that he can scare some GOP voters straight by scaring the diapers pants off them. Here’s an excerpt from an open letter the Vitterites sent to New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu:
As you know, New Orleans is expecting an influx of Syrian refugees, some of whom have already arrived. Based on all the information available to me, I have no confidence that these refugees are being fully and properly vetted to ensure they contain absolutely noterrorists elements.
Please join me and others in demanding that President Obama stopaccepting these Syrian refugees immediately, and stop settling any into New Orleans, given this unacceptable lax security and lack of full vetting on their backgrounds.
14 Syrian refugees is an influx? That’s the grand total that have come to Louisiana since civil war broke out in Assadville. Meanwhile, PBJ remembered that he’s still Gret Stet Goober and has joined other Republican Governors in demanding a stop to Syrian immigration.
I just signed an Executive Order instructing state agencies to take all available steps to stop the relocation of Syrian refugees to LA.
— Gov. Bobby Jindal (@BobbyJindal) November 16, 2015
He had to do something after losing the Steve King endorsement to Ted Cruz. I expect comments about the size of Syrian calves next from PBJ.
Back to Vitter. His use of the Syrian refugee issue makes me nervous. I expect him to hit it hard in overwhelmingly Cajun Acadiana where people have close historical and emotional ties to France. Clearly a Governor has nothing to do fighting ISIL, but it’s likely to scare up a few more votes from Republicans who planned to stay home. I use the word scare literally: fear of the other and of terrorism is all Vitter has going for him at this point.
It’s no surprise that Bitter Vitter is a raging hypocrite on this issue as pointed out by Bob Mann:
U.S. Senate records show that Sen. David Vitter, who served on that body’s Armed Services Committee from January 2009 to January 2015, missed two of three public committee hearing on Syria held from 2012 through 2014.
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Vitter is also running online petitions about the issue on Facebook, making robo-calls to Louisiana voters about the refugees and even attempting to use the issue to raise money for his campaign.
Again, I’m not how effective this tactic will be but it could help him with the sort of low information rural voters who have supported him in the past. This is not the sort of issue that brings out the better angels of the Republican base either here or nationally.
Finally, the Democratic Governor’s Association has put up an anti-Vitter web site. It’s a take on House of Cards called Vitter’s House of Lies. Welcome to Word Press, y’all. And a hearty FU to Diaper Dave…
The final runoff debate is tonight at 6 PM Central and I’ll post some instant analysis before the stroke of midnight.
I remain cautiously optimistic that Edwards will hold on and win, but the Gret Stet’s recent political history makes me as nervous as Oscar and Della when they hear the word V-E-T.