LA-Gov: With just days to go before Saturday's runoff, Louisiana's gubernatorial race has become as dispiritingly awful as it's possible for politics in America to get. Republican Sen. David Vitter decided to find the foulest gutter he could dive into and guzzle like a thirsty camel, with a revolting new ad that uses actual footage of the Paris terrorist attacks to attack both refugees and his opponent, Democrat John Bel Edwards:
One of Paris ISIS terrorists entered France posing as a Syrian refugee. Now Obama is sending Syrian refugees to Louisiana. David Vitter warned Obama the dangers of Syrian refugees weeks ago and promised as governor no Syrian refugees will enter Louisiana. John Bel Edwards has pledged to work with Obama to bring Syrian refugees to Louisiana.
The ad then tendentiously features a clip of Edwards saying, "I supported the president"—a clip recycled from an October candidate forum in which Edwards was asked who he backed in the 2012 presidential election—followed by the narrator declaring, "He always does." We don't know what Vitter is spending on this garbage, but Politico's Kevin Robillard says the spot is airing statewide. The Fund for Louisiana's Future, a pro-Vitter super PAC, is also running a similarly disgusting ad that features footage of what are presumably ISIS troops.
Depressingly, there isn't much daylight on this issue between Vitter and Edwards, who fired back with a new ad of his own saying that he "immediately called for an end to bringing Syrian refugees to Louisiana" after the Paris attacks and accusing Vitter of "distorting the facts and trying to use this tragedy to save his desperate campaign." Edwards also hits Vitter for skipping congressional hearings on the refugee crisis. At least Edwards just speaks directly to the camera and doesn't deploy the same kind of fear-mongering rhetoric or scary imagery, but this is all still so dismaying.
On the non-refugee front, the campaigns have also traded some fresh blows on the airwaves. Another Vitter spot criticizes Edwards for skipping a candidate forum, saying he instead invited voters to join him "for free drinks" at a "strip club," then "hauled them on a party bus for early voting." The whole ad is basically a racial dog whistle—just watch to see what we mean. And what makes this all so chutzpahdik is that Vitter himself ducked many debates before the primary, and was called on it by his opponents.
Meanwhile, two pro-Edwards groups are laying into Vitter. One ad, from Louisiana Families First, says that Vitter would represent a third term for deeply unpopular Gov. Bobby Jindal, using a clip of Vitter saying "I like Bobby. I respect his leadership. I agree with all his political values." In a bit of odd timing, Jindal just dropped out of the race for president on Tuesday night, ensuring that he'll swallow up a local news cycle—though who knows if Vitter (who is actually known to loathe Jindal) will be pleased or miffed at the distraction.
Finally, the DGA-backed Gumbo PAC revisits Vitter's prostitution scandal, then whacks him for "paying a private investigator to spy on a Republican sheriff." That's a reference to this pathetic story, in case the oozing buckets of slime emanating from this race have been too much to keep up with.
And to close on one non-ad-related note, the conservative blog RRH Elections (formerly known as Red Racing Horses) has commissioned a poll from PMI, Inc. showing Edwards with a 48-42 lead on Vitter. That's identical to the results that another right-wing blog, The Hayride, recently found. Independent pollsters have generally seen a much bigger advantage for Edwards, but given the spotty track records of the firms that have gone into the field here, there's every reason to be skeptical of all the polling.