AP Analysis: Obama trumps ethics issues

Two candidates, both seemingly vulnerable on ethics issues, have President Barack Obama to thank, to a large extent, for big victories in last week’s Louisiana elections.

Democrat Cedric Richmond, supportive of and supported by Obama, easily won a House seat that his party lost two years ago. He praised the health care bill Obama pushed through Congress this year and blasted incumbent Republican Joseph Cao for voting against the 2009 economic stimulus bill.

On the flip side, Republican Sen. David Vitter, one of the president’s most vehement critics, easily won re-election by calling for total repeal of the health care bill and blasting Rep. Charlie Melancon, his Democratic challenger, for voting for the stimulus bill.

It would be a mistake to credit either man’s victory solely to his position on Obama – who is popular in the 2nd Congressional District, where Richmond won, and not so popular among statewide voters who went for Vitter.

After all, each man has proven himself an able politician.

Richmond, 37 and in his third legislative term, rounded up formidable support on his way to the Democratic nomination for the 2nd District seat. Vitter worked his way up from the state House to the U.S. House and became the state’s first GOP senator since Reconstruction six years ago – before Obama’s rise.

But both had what would appear to be problems going into the election.

Blots on Richmond’s record include the 2008 suspension of his law license for falsely stating his domicile address when he signed up to run for a City Council seat in New Orleans in 2005 and a bar fight in Baton Rouge in which charges were eventually dismissed. Also under scrutiny in the campaign was his role in steering hundreds of thousands of dollars to a nonprofit agency that rented a building from one of his supporters and that was run by a woman who was eventually prosecuted for misuse of funds. Richmond was never implicated in that matter, but his opponents were highly critical of it.

No problem for him last Tuesday. He got 65 percent of the vote.

Vitter’s problems amounted to more than a blot. He was the “serious sin” senator, linked by phone records to a call girl business run by Washington’s “D.C. Madam,” Deborah Palfrey.

No matter. He won 57 percent of the vote to Melancon’s 38 percent, after successfully tying Melancon to every Obama policy unpopular with Louisiana voters – except in Richmond’s 2nd District.

Richmond’s party took a drubbing in the House elections on Tuesday but his strong backing from Obama – the president even made a television ad for him – establishes him as someone to be reckoned with in Louisiana politics and, perhaps, the national party.

But Vitter’s huge victory Tuesday was the election story of the night in Louisiana. Vitter was a rising GOP star when the Palfrey scandal hit. He had a role in Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign and was mentioned as possible future presidential material.

Shreveport political consultant Elliot Stonecipher said the sex scandal likely will keep a place on a national ticket forever out of Vitter’s reach. But he could still move up to Senate leadership roles.

“If he wants to stay in the Senate, he’s got a lot of time ahead of him,” Stonecipher said.

Last Tuesday’s victory proved Vitter’s political acumen and his ability to identify, listen to and respond to his base, said Stonecipher.

It also validated Vitter’s anti-Obama strategy as well as his avoidance of reporters who might ask him about the Palfrey case. He was pinned down for persistent questioning only once in a debate a few days before the campaign. He revealed little and wouldn’t say whether he broke the law.

“I think his calculation was: ‘The news media is going to hound me. They have decreasing popularity and that will end up benefiting me,'” said Stonecipher. “It hasn’t just worked for him. He has benefited from it.”

– EDITOR’S NOTE: Kevin McGill covers politics and government for The Associated Press in New Orleans.