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)
Romney must be whispering in quite a few ears–Jindal, Haley, Christie, not to mention Santorum (!). If Gingrich wasn’t such a monumental egomaniac, he and Santorum might have been a winning combo. An all Catholic ticket? Given the current climate–wow.
Wonderful! So we get another RINO at the head of the ticket, a reliable, strong, lots-of-future-ahead-of-them conservative at the tail, and get to watch another future contender get destroyed by the press, the Dems, and the establishment!
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I wonder which Romney campaign staffer has signed up for the tell-all slime book out of this campaign…
Cassidy will have NO problem raising cash for a campaign against Landrieu, with or without Teepell. With Teepell, it could be a shoo in, especially if Mary does not run for re-election.
FYI, the state Dem party has not been able to field a decent statewide candidate for a few years now.