According to unofficial but complete returns from the Secretary of State’s Office, Landry lead the Tuesday contest with 64 percent of the electorate, or 108,957 votes. Democratic nominee Ravi Sangisetty of Houma tallied just 36 percent, or 61,909 votes.
Landry, 39, watched the election results come in with family and friends at the Gouguenheim Reception Hall in New Iberia. Throughout the evening, he said he was reluctant to accept congratulations from anyone. “The congratulations belongs to all the voters,” Landry said.
Voters should likewise feel good about Republicans taking over the U.S. House, he said, especially since several party leaders were involved with his campaign. “The first order of business is to see how this all plays out,” Landry said. “If Republicans take control of Congress, then I would say that the district is positioned well to have a seat at the table when decisions are made.”
From his own election night party at Cristiano Ristorante in Houma, Sangisetty said he wasn’t discouraged by the results. “There’s no shame in stepping up and the fighting the good fight,” he said. “I still believe in my community and this region. I talked about the issues and there’s something to be said about that. I’m proud of what we were able to accomplish. We offered voters a choice and did everything we could.”
At only 28, Sangisetty was among the youngest candidates statewide on the fall ballot, which could mean he has a long political career ahead of him. “You never know what the future holds,” said Sangisetty. “We’ll see what happens.”
Joshua Stockley, political science professor at UL Monroe, said Landry can credit some of his success to the tea party movement. During the Republican primary, the first of its kind held in the district in recent history, Landry was able to use the anti-incumbent fervor to topple former House Speaker Hunt Downer of Houma, said Stockley.
As for Tuesday’s general election, Stockley said Sangisetty’s timing couldn’t have been worse. “Sangisetty was the victim of a couple of things,” he said. “But mostly national forces. It was not a good year to be a Democrat in Louisiana. A lot of Democratic constituencies did not show up. All you have to do is look at the exit polls.”
Dr. Pearson Cross, a political science professor at UL Lafayette, said it’s a sign of the times in south Louisiana. “The time when the right kind of Democrat could win in the 3rd Congressional District is passing,” Cross said. “Louisiana is getting more conservative, and the potential of a Reagan Democrat with enough crossover appeal is dwindling. I think the 3rd District is in flux and moving more to the right.”
Landry takes the place of current U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, a Napoleonville Democrat who vacated the seat to make his own unsuccessful bid Tuesday against incumbent U.S. Sen. David Vitter, a Republican from Metairie. Melancon has been serving in the 3rd Congressional District, which includes portions of Acadiana, since 2005.
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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It's a good thing that the Acadiana area sends a young, aggressive voice to represent South Louisiana on Capital Hill.