Diaper sales set to soar in Louisiana

[marmar]

How did a little-known Democratic state representative manage to win a landslide election for governor in deep red Louisiana?

Easy. John Bel Edwards drew the reviled U.S. Sen. David Vitter as his opponent.

That’s not great news for Democrats hoping that Edwards’ stunning 56–44 Nov. 21 victory would illuminate a path in other challenging environments. Vitter, a political juggernaut for most of his 24-year career despite a prostitution scandal that would have destroyed a less talented—and less brazen—politician, collapsed in epic fashion. Edwards’ smart, character-based campaign certainly helped, but the election boiled down to a referendum on the archconservative Republican senator, who saw the writing on the wall and announced during his concession speech that he wouldn’t seek a third term in 2016.

Outside of Edwards’ initially small circle—his family and friends, some deep-pocketed trial lawyers, and organized labor, particularly teachers’ unions—few would have predicted the outcome when the season began. With Gov. Bobby Jindal AWOL in Iowa running his futile presidential campaign, Vitter was Louisiana’s most powerful, best-funded Republican. No Democrat had won statewide since 2008. Vitter himself easily won reelection in 2010 by fixating on Obama, at the height of Tea Party fervor and three years after news broke that Vitter’s phone number had appeared in the records of a Washington, D.C., call-girl ring. ..............(more)

http://www.salon.com/2016/01/12/david_vitter_a_final_farewell_a_stench_that_is_getting_ready_to_come_over_louisiana/