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but they’re capable,” he says. It’s a different picture on the Republican side, where likely candidates already are stacking up: Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle, Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, Treasurer John Kennedy, state Sen. Gerald Long of Winnfield, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand, Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain and U.S. Sen. David Vitter, among others. For his part, Edwards already is running against a Republican who won’t even be in the race: Jindal, who’s nearly halfway through his second and final term. With favorability ratings lower than Obama’s in Louisiana, Jindal is in a free fall following legal challenges to his landmark education and retirement reform packages, poor performances on the national presidential circuit, and a taxswap plan that was pronounced dead before the current legislative session even opened. The governor’s budgets, always accompanied by shortfalls and mid-year cuts, are likewise causing him political heartburn. Jindal upset teachers, state workers, unions, working families — and even middleclass moderates with kids in or considering state colleges and universities. That has created a perfect political opportunity for someone like Edwards, an unrelenting critic of the administration, to swoop in and promise to play the role of hero. “I think it’s clear to people in this state that the governor has placed personal ambition above their welfare,” Edwards says. “His policies more than anything are causing people who have voted Republican over the last few election cycles to realize there is a cost associated [with such a vote].” Pinsonat agrees. Republicans have been on a roll since 2011, he says,
Your Next Governor? Most New Orleanians aren't familiar with the Democrat who's announced he's running for governor. Meet John Bel Edwards. Planned a career in the Army until family trouble brought him home
No relation to Gov. Edwin Edwards West Point graduate
Pro-life (except in cases of incest and rape)
Opposes creationism in public schools
claiming the state House, Senate and all but one statewide office (including the federal seats). But recently Jindal has become a liability. “His cuts to hospitals and higher education and mental health facilities and all that may or may not affect that race,” the pollster says. “It could help push lower- and middle-income voters away from Republicans and make this thing achievable. That is something to be watched, and it is showing up in polls.
Believes in science behind climate change Opposes same-sex marriage
But that’s right now. The election is a long ways off.” Jason Dore, executive director of the Louisiana Republican Party, noted that should Edwards be the lone high-profile Democrat, he has a decent shot of making the runoff against the top GOP vote getter, given history and the nature of the state’s jungle primary. But the lawmaker’s constant opposition to Jindal’s policies and support for Obama’s will help RePAGE 22
Gambit > bestofneworleans.com > maY 7 > 2013
In terms of the 2015 governor’s race, Edwards announced at zero dark hundred, that ambiguous military timeframe when the sun is still down, the crickets are chirping and there’s dew clinging to blades of grass. Among Democrats, he remains the only committed candidate. New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu is said to be comfortable where he is for now. The mayor’s sister, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, is gearing up for her own tough re-election campaign. She is the only statewide elected Democrat in Louisiana. Bernie Pinsonat, president of Southern Media and Opinion Research in Baton Rouge, says Mitch Landrieu is the real wild card among Democrats and looms as Edwards’ biggest political obstacle. “Mitch Landrieu would be the strongest candidate,” Pinsonat says. “He has already held statewide elected office. It doesn’t matter what John Bel Edwards does. If Mitch decides to run, Edwards becomes a noncandidate.” Jim Bernhard, former CEO of the Shaw Group in Baton Rouge and one-time chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party, is rumored to be considering the race, especially following whispers that President Barack Obama had him on the short list for energy secretary. Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell is a perennial maybe candidate, too, with a populist twist. “There will be others,” says state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson of New Orleans, current chairwoman of the Louisiana Democratic Party. “I have heard interest from different people, although I can’t reveal who they are.” Edwards believes he’ll have company, too. “We’re not lacking. The bench is there,” he says. “The question is whether these folks will want to get in the game. I am truly impressed by the quality of talent.” He adds that statewide Democratic candidates could easily emerge from the Legislature, most notably Speaker Pro Tem Walt Leger of New Orleans and Sens. Eric LaFleur of Ville Platte and Rick Gallot of Ruston, as well as from mayor’s offices in Alexandria and Baton Rouge. “I don’t know what these people want to do,
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