Now if only we can keep Trent Lott talking
Dec. 8th, 2002 12:17 amNEW ORLEANS, Dec. 7 In a rebuff to President Bush's political power and personal prestige, Louisiana voters today rejected Suzanne Haik Terrell, his hand-picked candidate, and retained Senator Mary L. Landrieu, a freshman Democrat, leaving unbroken the Democrats' 130-year-old monopoly on Louisiana's two Senate berths in Washington.
With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Senator Landrieu had 627,253 votes, or 51 percent, and Ms. Terrell had 591,791, or 49 percent. Ms. Terrell conceded late tonight.
While surveys had shown this $11 million race to be a dead heat, many analysts had believed that Ms. Terrell, whose campaign was engineered and fueled by the White House, had the momentum going into today's runoff election, which was needed because of Ms. Landrieu's failure to win 50 percent of the vote in November.
Aided by warm, clear weather, the Landrieu campaign succeeded in pulling out enough African-American voters to counter Ms. Terrell's overwhelming support among white voters, a strong commitment from the national Republican Party and a last-minute attempt to discourage blacks from going to the polls.
The president put his personal prestige on the line here, unleashing the full strength of the party's apparatus to help Ms. Terrell raise money, organize, make commercials and get out the vote. In addition, he flew here Tuesday on Air Force One to campaign with her, raising $1.2 million and producing a powerful commercial that saturated the airwaves.
...
The White House invested significantly in Ms. Terrell and tried to make voters to see it as a national election. It deployed the most famous names in Republican politics - President Bush and his father and mother, Vice President Dick Cheney, Rudolph W. Giuliani and Bob Dole among them...
With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Senator Landrieu had 627,253 votes, or 51 percent, and Ms. Terrell had 591,791, or 49 percent. Ms. Terrell conceded late tonight.
While surveys had shown this $11 million race to be a dead heat, many analysts had believed that Ms. Terrell, whose campaign was engineered and fueled by the White House, had the momentum going into today's runoff election, which was needed because of Ms. Landrieu's failure to win 50 percent of the vote in November.
Aided by warm, clear weather, the Landrieu campaign succeeded in pulling out enough African-American voters to counter Ms. Terrell's overwhelming support among white voters, a strong commitment from the national Republican Party and a last-minute attempt to discourage blacks from going to the polls.
The president put his personal prestige on the line here, unleashing the full strength of the party's apparatus to help Ms. Terrell raise money, organize, make commercials and get out the vote. In addition, he flew here Tuesday on Air Force One to campaign with her, raising $1.2 million and producing a powerful commercial that saturated the airwaves.
...
The White House invested significantly in Ms. Terrell and tried to make voters to see it as a national election. It deployed the most famous names in Republican politics - President Bush and his father and mother, Vice President Dick Cheney, Rudolph W. Giuliani and Bob Dole among them...