3rd District house race continues to see new faces, unofficially

Jeff Landry – a candidate from New Iberia who is running for Louisiana’s 3rd District House seat – officially filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Jan. 27. FEC records show Landry has pulled in $117,025. Over $96,000 was received from individual contributors who support Landry’s campaign.

The candidate formerly served as an aide in the State Senate and is currently working as a business attorney.

He was also delegated to the Republican State Convention and served on the party’s Platform Committee, where he helped write the party’s platform.

Although Landry – like many 3rd District candidates – has not officially thrown in a bid for the open seat, he has already hired an associate from Littlefield Consulting in Alexandria, Va., to spearhead his now, preliminary campaign. The firms aim is to “…elect strong candidates and influence public policy throughout our nation,” according to their website www.littlefieldconsulting.com.

Brent Littlefield, the president of the group, said he is the senior advisor to Landry’s campaign. While a timeframe for the New Iberia candidate’s bid has not been announced, Littlefield said, “…He is expected to officially enter the race shortly.”

According to the president of the company, Landry has been in close contact with “…key conservative political leaders around the state.” In an email sent to some of those leaders, the candidate said, “I have been looking at the politics of our state for months and listening to longtime politicians who could not decide what political party they belonged to, and/or what taxpayer-paid job they could get next, I decided that someone needed to step up to the plate to represent us – the people of the District.”

Landry also made strong connections between voters in Louisiana and Massachussets, which was recent host to a firestorm senate race.

“Louisiana voters like those in Massachusetts are tired of politicians who claim that the people’s elected seats are their seats, that public office is for private gain or personal promotion,” claimed the candidate in the email.

But since Dec. 31, 2009 – when Landry originally filed with the FEC – Littlefield said, “…[the campaign] has raised a lot more money.”

In other political news, Rep. Charlie Melancon, who is now bidding for a U.S. Senate seat currently held by David Vitter, announced earlier this month his campaign raised over $600,000 during the 4th quarter of 2009. Melancon was the former incumbent of the 3rd District House seat; his bid for senate left the seat open, which drew a fair amount interest from candidates across the area.

Melancon will report to the FEC as having over $2 million in cash on hand, according to a news release. “This strong fundraising performance shows that Louisianans are tired of politics-as-usual in Washington and [are] ready for a more common-sense, more disciplined, more honest approach that focuses on putting Louisiana first,” said Melancon’s campaign manager Bradley Beychok in the release.