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Lousiana Senate Chess: Bill Cassidy hires Timmy Teepell. For 2014?

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  February 16th, 2012 at 05:30 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Tuesday, the news came out: Rep. Bill Cassidy (R, LA) has hired Timmy Teepell for his 2012 re-election campaign.  If you’re wondering why I’m telling you this, this is why: Cassidy is a two-term Congressman who won almost 2/3rds of the vote in the last election (and did not get hurt by this round of redistricting) and Teepell is the guy behind Bobby Jindal’s 2011 re-election… well, ‘campaign’ is not exactly the right word.  ‘Kinetic strike from orbit‘ would be a good deal more accurate.  In other words, Teepell is not exactly needed for Cassidy’s 2012 race.

One of my colleagues – somebody who is much more knowledgeable about Louisiana politics than I am – concludes from all of this that this means that Gov. Bobby Jindal will not be running for the 2014 Senate seat against embattled incumbent Mary Landrieu, and that Rep. Cassidy will.  Hard to argue with the logic; snapping up Teepell early and giving him a chance to get used to Cassidy’s existing campaign team in what should be a pretty easy election campaign sounds like a good idea.  And it’s certainly true that Landrieu’s Senate seat – one of the last remaining bastions of Democratic power in Louisiana – is a glittering prize.  But it does leave one question: if Bobby Jindal doesn’t want to go from Governor to Senator, then where does he want to go?

Because let’s not pretend: Bobby Jindal’s a good guy and a good governor, but he’s also a politician… which means that he’s ambitious.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

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COMMENTS

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  • http://www.thehayride.com MacAoidh

    (more on that here.)

    As for Jindal’s future, this would indicate, as Moe said, that he’s not going to be involved in the 2014 race. Jindal is sitting on a $4 million campaign war chest at present, but it’s state money rather than federal – so it wouldn’t do him any good if he got into the Senate race.

    It’s entirely likely that Jindal will look to jump to a Cabinet post if a GOP candidate won this fall. His current legislative agenda, which includes perhaps the most aggressive education reform package in American history and a high-stakes fight over state employee pensions, would be consistent with that; if Jindal can move the chains on those two issues this year he’s very likely to go down as a transformational figure in Louisiana history – and one wonders what else he could possibly do to top those wins. Meaning that if he wins those two fights he can sail off to DC as a hero.

    If not, Jindal can stay in Louisiana, burnish his image as a GOP policy guru, finish his term (he’ll be out of office in January 2016) and weigh his options.

    The conventional wisdom here in Baton Rouge, however, is that Jindal has little love for the legislative process and doesn’t really want to go back to that role in government – which is what the Senate would be. He sees himself as an executive.

  • citizenkh

    formidable at least in Baton Rouge. Raising campaign funds will be no problem at all.

    Mary certainly got the path cleared for her younger brother to win the mayoral race in New Orleans and funding dried up for all black candidates who could have made a showing the minute he announced, late in the race.

    I wonder if Mary will even run for re-election.

  • http://www.StanOlshefski.com Stan Olshefski

    But, I believe with work, you can convert state money into federal money (within certain limits).

    Basically, you have to get donors to sign letters re-allocating their contributions to your federal race.

  • cajunchosid770

    Being from Louisiana originally, I have known about Jindal for 15 years. He is definitely presedential material. He is only 41 now so he has plenty of time to decide if/when he would run.

    He does not need to run in 2016 but it would come right after he finishes 2 terms as governor.

    His time will come.

  • Scope

    and squealing that Rubio is not a natural born citizen, are now squealing that Jindal is not a natural born citizen either. Have you noticed the same Rubio bashing and trashing that happened when Palin looked like a strong R candidate? As someone said, they are trying to kill Rubio while he is still in the political crib. It never stops, it never stops, with the liberals. Romney’s bashing and trashing of his opponents feeds into the narrative, even though it is coming from what is considered our own side. Romney’s liberal campaign tactics are wreaking major havoc on the Republican party.

  • Dave_A

    And has now attracted all manner of wingnuts from both parties…

    Including a good number of ‘Know Nothing’ anti-ALL-immigration types, who can’t understand that ‘Natural Born’ means ‘any citizen who did not have to be naturalized’, and that the US has had ‘citizenship by birth’ long before the 14th Ammendment….

  • Scope

    The birther arguments on the right seem to be coming from those that are against Rubio and Jindal because they haven’t adopted the policies of the Paulbots. Two Paulbots filed paperwork to insure that Santorum is not included on the ballot in IN. The less the choices, the more delegates Paul gets. Huh, and they call themselves freedom fighters. What a joke.

  • proudgop

    That woman has more luck but I think Louisiana has finally turned corner. She might be Lincoln of 2014

    2014 is long time

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    Federal money comes with donation caps.

  • Adjoran

    He understands the issues and has the executive background to straighten out the mess.

  • gawken

    Would like to have a piece about the primary race between Boustany and Landry. In many ways, this is what we need to have happen nationwide, a rock solid conservative challenging a RINO. Any polling?..what do those in the state think about this race?

    I found it very interesting, and telling, that Vitter endorsed Landry early on, though that was probably payback for his primary. Are any other GOP officials taking sides on this on?

  • Dave_A

    Now, it’s a mix of paulbots & Buchananites/Know-Nothings (folks who want immigration stopped completely)….