Mary Landrieu

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Mary Landrieu
Senior Senator from Louisiana
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 7, 1997 Serving with David Vitter
Preceded by	J. Bennett Johnston
Chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Legislative Branch
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 3, 2007
Preceded by	Wayne Allard
Louisiana State Treasurer
In office 1988 – 1996
Governor	Buddy Roemer Edwin Edwards
Preceded by	Mary Evelyn Parker
Succeeded by	Ken Duncan
Born	November 23, 1955 (1955-11-23) (age 52) Arlington, Virginia
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Frank Snellings
Residence	New Orleans, Louisiana
Alma mater	Louisiana State University
Occupation	real estate agent
Religion	Roman Catholic

Mary Loretta Landrieu (born November 23, 1955) is the senior United States Senator from the state of Louisiana, and the only Louisiana woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate, following in the footsteps of Senators Rose Long (1935) and Elaine Edwards (1972), who were both appointed. She is the daughter of former New Orleans mayor Moon Landrieu and the sister of current Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu. By national standards, Landrieu is among the most conservative Democrats in the U.S. Senate, and is a member of the New Democrat Coalition. She is up for re-election in 2008 in what is expected to be a close race with state Treasurer John N. Kennedy.^[1]

[edit] Personal life

Landrieu was born in Arlington, Virginia to Verna Satterlee and former New Orleans mayor Moon Landrieu,^[2] and raised in New Orleans. She was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended Ursuline Academy of New Orleans. She graduated from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge in 1977 where she was a member of Delta Gamma sorority. Before entering politics, she worked as a real estate agent. She was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1980 to 1988, representing a New Orleans-based district. She then served as Louisiana state treasurer from 1988 to 1996. Landrieu ran for governor of Louisiana in 1995, but finished third in the state's jungle primary (which at that time was considered the actual election in Louisiana). The eventual winner was Democrat-turned-Republican Murphy J. "Mike" Foster, Jr.

Landrieu and her husband, attorney Frank Snellings (born 1949), who grew up in Monroe, have two adopted children, Connor and Mary Shannon. Frank Snellings' parents, George and Marie Louise Snellings, were originally Republicans but later switched party affiliations.

[edit] 1996 Senate election

Landrieu was elected in 1996 to the U.S. Senate seat previously held by John Bennett Johnston, Jr. of Shreveport. The multi-candidate field included Democratic state Attorney General Richard Ieyoub and the former Ku Klux Klan leader, Republican David Duke. Among the minor candidates was Troyce Guice, who had sought the same seat thirty years earlier when it was held by the veteran Senator Allen J. Ellender. Landrieu went into the runoff with State Representative Woody Jenkins of Baton Rouge, a former Democrat who had turned Republican two years earlier. She prevailed by a disputed 5,788 votes out of 1.7 million cast, the narrowest national result of the thirty-three races for the U.S. Senate that year and one of the closest election margins in Louisiana history. At the same time, Democrat Bill Clinton carried Louisiana by a considerable margin — 927,837 votes to 712,586 cast for Republican Bob Dole.

Jenkins refused to accept defeat and charged massive election fraud, orchestrated by the Democratic political organization of New Orleans, provided Landrieu's narrow margin of victory. He took his case to the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate and petitioned for Landrieu's unseating pending a new election. In a hearing, carried live by C-SPAN, the Senate Rules Committee in a party-line 8-7 vote agreed to investigate the charges. The decision briefly placed Landrieu's status in the U.S. Senate under a cloud.

Only a month into the probe, however, it emerged that Thomas "Papa Bear" Miller, a detective hired by Jenkins to investigate claims of fraud, had coached witnesses to claim they had participated in election fraud. Three witnesses claimed Miller had paid them to claim that they had either cast multiple votes for Landrieu or drove vans of illegal voters across town. The others told such bizarre tales that FBI agents dismissed their claims out of hand. It also emerged that Miller had several felony convictions on his record, including a guilty plea to attempted murder. The Democrats walked out of the probe in protest, but the probe continued.^[3]

The investigation dragged on for over ten months, angering the Democrats and exacerbating partisan friction in the day-to-day sessions of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee to which Landrieu was assigned as a freshman member of the 105th Congress. Finally, in October 1997, the Rules Committee concluded that while there were major electoral irregularities, none of them were serious enough to burden Louisiana with a new election at that stage. It recommended that the results stand.

The Landrieu-Jenkins contest was not the only U.S. Senate election in 20th century Louisiana in which the results were hotly disputed. Future Senator John H. Overton claimed the renomination and hence reelection of Senator Joseph E. Ransdell was tainted by fraud. In 1932, Senator Edwin S. Broussard claimed that his primary defeat by Overton was fraudulent. In both cases, the Senate seated the certified winners, Ransdell and Overton, respectively.

[edit] Landrieu as senator

Landrieu narrowly won re-election in the 2002 mid-term election. She defeated Suzanne Haik Terrell of New Orleans. Without her large base from Orleans Parish, Landrieu would have been unseated. Some experts and pundits had considered Landrieu as a possible running mate for presidential candidate John Kerry in the 2004 election before Kerry's selection of then Senator John Edwards of North Carolina. With the departure of John Breaux from the Senate in December 2004, his seat being taken by Republican David Vitter, Landrieu became Louisiana's senior senator.

She has made securing funding for Louisiana projects one of her top priorities as a US Senator. She has also held high profile hearings on the mistakes of FEMA in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. She faces voters again in the November 4th, 2008 election against challenger, Louisiana State Treasurer John Kennedy (R), who switched to the Republican Party in 2007.

[edit] Committee assignments

• Committee on Appropriations
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
  • Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government
  • Subcommittee on Homeland Security
  • Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Legislative Branch (Chairman)
  • Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans' Affairs, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
• Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
• Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
  • Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery (Chairman)
  • Ad Hoc Subcommittee on State, Local, and Private Sector Preparedness and Integration
  • Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia
• Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
  • Subcommittee on Energy
  • Subcommittee on National Parks
  • Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Gang of 14

Sen. Landrieu (center) joins Women of the Storm from the Gulf Coast

On May 23, 2005, Landrieu was among the Gang of 14, the group of moderate senators who forged a compromise on the use of the judicial filibuster and blocked the Republican leadership's attempt to implement the so-called nuclear option over the organized filibustering by Senate Democrats of judicial nominees in the U.S. Senate. Under the agreement, the Democrats would retain the power to filibuster a Bush judicial nominee only in an "extraordinary circumstance" and the three most conservative Bush appellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) would receive a vote by the full Senate.

Landrieu supports eliminating the estate tax permanently, and voted for the tax cut passed in 2001. On November 17, 2005, she was one of only four Democrats to vote against repealing the portions of the tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003 that more liberal Democrats have charged unfairly benefit the wealthy. She voted for the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 and the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. In 2004, Landrieu was one of only six Democrats to vote against renewing the ban on semi-automatic firearms. She has also been one of the few Democrats to support drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Landrieu voted for the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts in 2005, but in 2006, she opposed Samuel Alito, though she did vote in favor of cloture to send the nomination to an up-or-down vote.

Subsequent to the 2006 midterm election, in which the Democratic Party gained control of both houses of Congress, Landrieu announced (along with Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine) the formation of a "centrist coalition" of moderate senators of both parties, the goal of which they announced to be reducing partisan rancor in the new Senate.

Now, in 2008 a new bi-partisan group in which Senator Landrieu is a part of and has been working with, is being called The Gang of 10. It is a bipartisan group of 10 senators that have offered an energy plan aimed at producing more domestic oil via offshore drilling, reducing energy prices, and aiding the US economy.

[edit] Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina destroyed Landrieu's lakeside New Orleans home. The senator has become a national spokeswoman for victims of the hurricane and has complained of "the staggering incompetence of the national government."^[4] In an interview with Chris Wallace, Landrieu called the evacuation of New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina "the best evacuation". She also commented that "most mayors in this country have a hard time getting their people to work on a sunny day".

Unnamed critics have condemned Louisiana's representatives over the state's handling of the Katrina crisis. However, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) contracted with Innovative Emergency Management for the now-infamous "Hurricane Pam" exercise, which predicted a 70-percent evacuation rate in New Orleans. State officials ended up coordinating the evacuation of 80 percent of the city,^[5] exceeding professionally-projected figures.

[edit] Protect America Act

On August 3, 2007, Landrieu created much controversy when she and Louisiana Rep Charlie Melancon broke ranks with Democrats and sided with Republicans and the Bush Administration in voting for the Protect America Act, an amendment to the USA Patriot Act further expanding wiretap powers.^[6]

[edit] Voyager reading program

Sen. Mary Landrieu was once again in controversy when she earmarked 2,000,000 USD for a reading program that recently supported her campaign for reelection. Randy Best, founder of the Voyager Expanded Learning literacy program, is reported to have donated 30,000 USD to Mary Landrieu's reelection campaign just days before she proposed his reading program in the 2 million dollar earmark. Best also held a fund raiser in his company in which he and his top associates donated to Landrieu's campaign.^[7] This earned her a spot on the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington "Top 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress" report.^[8]

[edit] Election history

See also: United States Senate election in Louisiana, 2008

United States Senator, 1996

Threshold > 50%

First ballot, September 21, 1996

Second ballot, November 5, 1996

United States Senator, 2002

Threshold > 50%

First ballot, November 5, 2002

Second ballot, December 7, 2002

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Mary Landrieu

• United States Senator Mary Landrieu, official Senate site
• Landrieu for US Senate official campaign website

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• New York Times — Mary Landrieu News collected news and commentary
• SourceWatch Congresspedia — Mary Landrieu profile
• About.com Profile of US Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana

v • d • e United States Senators from Louisiana Class 2: Destréhan • Posey • Brown • Claiborne • Johnson • Bouligny • Livingston • Waggaman • Nicholas • Barrow • Soulé • Downs • Benjamin • Harris • West • Kellogg • Gibson • Caffery • Foster • Ransdell • H. Long • R.M. Long • Ellender • Edwards • J.B. Johnston • Landrieu Class 3: Magruder • Fromentin • Brown • J.S. Johnston • Porter • Mouton • Conrad • Johnson • Soulé • Slidell • Kellogg • Eustis • Jonas • Eustis • White • Blanchard • McEnery • Thornton • R. Broussard • Guion • Gay • E. Broussard • Overton • Feazel • R.B. Long • Breaux • Vitter

v • d • e Current Government of Louisiana Statewide Elected Officials Senior United States Senator Junior United States Senator Mary Landrieu (D) David Vitter (R) Governor of Louisiana Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana Louisiana Secretary of State Louisiana Attorney General Louisiana Treasurer Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner of Insurance Bobby Jindal (R) Mitch Landrieu (D) Jay Dardenne (R) Buddy Caldwell (D) John Neely Kennedy (R) Mike Strain (R) Jim Donelon (R) Senate President President Pro Tempore Joel Chaisson (D) Sharon Weston Broome (D) House Speaker Speaker Pro Tempore Jim Tucker (R) Karen Carter Peterson (D)