Subject: (Guru) "Main Street" Republicans win one......
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1999 044122 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To: emfguru <rbeavers@llion.org>
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Hi everybody:
......In the following news report, you will read about an obscure
"special election" in Louisiana. It was held to replace the recently
resigned Speaker of the House (almost), Bob Livingston. You will
remember him -- he was guilty of Bill Clinton-like behavior -- had
to resign before he actually got into the Speakers job....
Anyway, there could be some significance in the outcome reported below.
You see -- the "Main Street" (non-establishment) Republican won over
the "Wall Street" (establishment) Republican....
Texas Governor George Bush, for example, the front running Republican
candidate for President, is clearly a Wall Street "favorite." Do you
think that he -- and the rest of the GOP -- will learn anything from this
special, off-year, election in Louisiana???? I doubt it.....
But they should.....
Cheerio.....
Roy Beavers (EMFguru)......
rbeavers@llion.org.......
.....It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.....
EMF-L web-site can be found at:
EMF-L archives can be found at:
..................PEOPLE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN PROFITS..................
_________________________________________________________________
02:46 PM ET 05/30/99
Vitter To Succeed Livingston in La. [Louisiana]
By KEVIN McGILL=
Associated Press Writer=
NEW ORLEANS (AP) _ His opponent had the backing of the state's
political elite, but David Vitter's anti-establishment campaign
prevailed as voters elected him to replace Bob Livingston in the
House of Representatives.
Vitter defeated former Gov. Dave Treen on Saturday despite
Treen's garnering of endorsements from more than a dozen
high-profile politicians, including Gov. Mike Foster, Livingston
and Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee.
``They may have been the past, but we are the future,'' a
jubilant Vitter said in his victory speech Saturday night.
Complete but unofficial returns gave Vitter 61,661 votes, or 51
percent, to Treen's 59,849 votes in Louisiana's affluent,
predominantly white and largely suburban 1st Congressional
District.
Both Vitter and Treen are Republicans. They finished atop a
field of nine in a May 1 primary.
Vitter benefited by portraying himself as an outsider shunned by
many influential Louisiana politicians, said Ed Renwick, a
political science professor at Loyola University.
``Running against the establishment probably helped him in the
end,'' Renwick said.
But low voter turnout helped Vitter because he had a dedicated
group of supporters who show up to vote, Renwick said.
Vitter, a former Rhodes scholar who's slim and boyish-looking at
38, made a name for himself by pushing a term limits bill for state
lawmakers through a reluctant Louisiana Legislature in 1995. And he
is noted more for his ability to get under his fellow politicians'
skins than for his willingness to compromise.
Livingston's popularity during more than 20 years in Congress
stemmed in part from his successful steering of defense contracts
to Avondale Shipyards and money for flood control. He had risen to
the chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee and was in
line to be speaker until he resigned after confessing to marital
infidelities as news of them was about to break.
Treen congratulated Vitter Saturday but could not hide his anger
at the Vitter camp's campaign tactics in the final days.
Treen decried opposition campaign material claiming or implying
he was running to increase the congressional pension he had earned
during a seven-year stint in Congress in the 1970s, that he had
voted for congressional pay increases and that he was supported by
ex-Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
_________________________________________________________________
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html