Path to Power
Born in Arlington, Va., in 1955, Mary Landrieu is one of former New Orleans Mayor Moon Landrieu’s nine children. As a child she regularly helped her father campaign and began to develop her leadership skills at New Orleans’ Ursuline Academy High School, where she was elected class president. Landrieu graduated from Ursuline in 1973 and from Louisiana State University in 1977.
One year out of college and living back at home, Landrieu was unsure of her future. She considered working in Christian ministry before deciding to enter politics, where she immediately displayed the vigorous campaigning skills her family was known for.
Landrieu became the youngest woman to be seated in the Louisiana legislature when she was elected to the State House in 1979. She easily won reelection in 1983. In the legislature Landrieu focused on women’s issues, pushing through laws cracking down on deadbeat dads and protecting victims of domestic abuse.
In 1987 Landrieu was elected state treasurer. She had no opposition four years later and was reelected. As treasurer she built the support of business executives throughout the state.
In 1995, Landrieu ran for governor but came in third in the Democratic primary. Immediately thereafter she began to campaign for the seat of retiring Sen. Bennett Johnston (D-La.). Landrieu’s campaign focused on the need for a balanced budget, a cut in the capital gains tax and a renewed emphasis on education. She edged Republican Woody Jenkins by 5,788 votes, with 50.2 percent of the vote. Jenkins sued, alleging voter fraud, but eventually withdrew his legal challenge.
In the Senate Landrieu began establishing a record as one of the chamber’s more conservative Democrats. She supported such bills as Republican Sen. Sam Brownback’s (Kan.) proposal to prohibit human cloning and President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act.
When Landrieu came up for re-election in 2002, the GOP had targeted her because of the closeness of her 1996 election and the strength Bush had shown in Louisiana in 2000. At first it appeared Landrieu’s Republican opponent would be U.S. Rep. John Cooksey (R). But a week after Sept. 11, 2001, Cooksey ruined his campaign with a comment comparing turbans to diapers. The Bush White House didn’t support Cooksey and he received no money from the Republican Party. Then two more Republicans State Rep. Tony Perkins and Elections Commissioner Suzanne Haik Terrell, entered the race in an attempt to force a runoff.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee began running ads that criticized Landrieu for voting to raise taxes. She responded by claiming that she supported the President 74 percent of the time. She won a plurality of votes, 46 percent, but not a majority as Louisiana law requires. The three Republicans combined to win 51 percent of the vote. Landrieu then defeated Terrell in the runoff with 52 percent of the vote.
Conservative Democrat
Landrieu has built a reputation as a conservative Democrat. She voted for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and supported the criminalization of killing unborn children. But she broke from the president and his party after September 2005 when Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of her state. In response to Bush’s comment that nobody “anticipated the breach of the levees,” she said, “Everybody anticipated the breach of the levees, Mr. President.” In the months after the hurricane she became a strong advocate for the people of New Orleans.
She joined with fellow Louisiana Sen. David Vitter (R) to introduce the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief and Economic Recovery Act of 2005, which asked Congress for $250 billion to rebuild New Orleans and surrounding areas. The act died in committee. Landrieu also vowed to block every one of the president’s appointments in 2006 until he agreed to provide $6 billion to reconstruct levees. The Senate eventually approved the money.
When Democrats took over the Senate in 2007, Landrieu became chairman of the Disaster Recovery subcommittee of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. She also joined Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) as co-chair of the newly formed bipartisan Common Ground Coalition.
Again in 2006 the Republican party saw Landrieu as one of the most vulnerable Democrats. Her opponent was state Treasurer John Kennedy,who switched his party affiliation from Democrat in 2007. Landrieu painted Kennedy as a flip-flopper,unable to decide on party or position. She talked frequently about how her seniority would help her bring money to the state and used a $4 million advantage in campaign spending to blanket the state with ads.Landrieu won 52 percent to 46 percent.
