Louisiana’s GOP is circulating this editorial on the smear ad in the Ouachita Citizen, which demonstrates a nuanced understanding of the Democrats’ political thinking.
Remember, it was among rural, white Protestant voters who Jindal polled poorly four years ago when he lost a close race for governor to Kathleen Blanco. Clearly, the Democrat’s new ad was geared toward hurting Jindal among those rural, white Protestant voters in the 2007 gubernatorial campaign.
While we have never been a fan of any candidate for public office using his or her faith as a tool to garner votes in any election, we abhor the efforts launched by the state Democratic Party to lie to the people of Louisiana about Jindal’s views on religion.
The ad is an extremely low blow in a year when Louisiana Democrats find themselves cornered and desperate (you may remember, from 2003, the ad where they actually darkened Jindal’s skin color, so it isn’t unprecedented). Jindal is already going to mop up on October 20, and then there’s the Democrats’ Hurricane Problem: the state legislature has not had an election since 2003 (in both houses they serve four-year terms), and people there know very well who was in charge when Katrina went down. Moreover, this is the first year that term-limits are forcing retirements, and there will be quite a few. A GOP House takeover is not out of the question.
Republicans have the potential to gain several seats, as Karl Kurtz at the ever-helpful National Conference of State Legislatures writes in his analysis:
First, 12-year term limits in each chamber, enacted in 1995, are taking full effect for the first time in the elections of 2007. Of the 105 members of the Louisiana House, only 52 are running for reelection, so at least 53 members will be freshmen after the 2007 elections.
Second, Republicans, long a small minority in the legislature, have been making significant gains in the last decade and expect to make more in the 2007 elections, turning a traditionally one-party legislature into a competitive two-party system.
This is why the Democrats are behaving themselves like cornered skunks. But odds are, far more people will hear about the controversy than will ever see the ad. It may expand Jindal’s margin of victory.