Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) Elected 1996, 2d term up 2008
Born:	Nov. 23, 1955, Arlington, VA
Home:	New Orleans
Education:	LA St. U., B.A. 1977
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Frank Snellings)
Elected  Office:	LA House of Reps., 1979-88; LA Treasurer, 1987-96.
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Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, was elected to the Senate in 1996 and reelected in 2002. Landrieu grew up in New Orleans, the oldest of nine children of Moon Landrieu (all with names starting with M), mayor of New Orleans in the 1970s. She was educated at Ursuline Academy and LSU and in 1979, at 23, became the youngest woman ever elected to the Louisiana state legislature, where she was sometimes the object of undue ridicule. In 1987 she was elected state Treasurer; she was a sharp critic of Governor Edwin Edwards and opposed gambling as "political cancer." In 1995 she ran for governor, and in the September primary finished third, just 1% and 8,983 votes behind second-place finisher Congressman Cleo Fields. She immediately started running for the Senate seat held by Bennett Johnston, who was retiring 24 years after he was elected to the Senate after a narrow loss in a governor's race.

With a well-known name and a moderate platform--for a balanced budget amendment and capital gains tax cut, promising to make education a top priority--Landrieu shared a lead in the polls with Attorney General Richard Ieyoub, also a Democrat; under Louisiana law if they finished in the top two in the September primary, they would meet in a November runoff, and Democrats would be guaranteed a win no matter what. This was an alarming situation for Republicans, who had no such well-known candidate and who believed that they could win the seat if they could get someone into the runoff. Stepping forward to fill the gap was Woody Jenkins, a 25-year state legislator and strong abortion opponent, who had run twice unsuccessfully for the Senate as a Democrat. In August he claimed the party endorsement; he surged in the polls, and led the September 21 primary with 26%, to 22% for Landrieu and 20% for Ieyoub; David Duke got 12%.

At this point Jenkins looked like the favorite; Republican candidates had won 55% of the total votes and Democrats only 44%. But he had little money left, and Landrieu, who ultimately outspent him, ran ads attacking him as an extremist. Jenkins attacked her for opposing abortion restrictions and supporting gay rights. Landrieu had to spend much time getting support from blacks, since many were unhappy that she had given only nominal support to Cleo Fields for governor in 1995. Gambling interests, who were busy trying to increase black turnout in New Orleans and elsewhere for their gambling referenda, also threw their support to Landrieu.

The result was an exceedingly close election. The official results showed Landrieu ahead by 5,788 votes, 50.2%-49.8%. Jenkins filed a lawsuit claiming vote fraud, but withdrew it, and submitted his case to the Senate. At the behest of Majority Leader Trent Lott, the Senate seated Landrieu ''without prejudice'' to Jenkins's challenge. To the Senate Rules Committee Jenkins submitted evidence that more votes were counted in many New Orleans precincts than the number of voters who signed in, and that campaign operatives ferried in ineligible voters. But in June, it was revealed that one of Jenkins's witnesses was a convicted felon, and several others retracted their testimony. Democrats protested, and Landrieu was bitter, but Rules Chairman John Warner continued the hearings. Finally in October 1997 the committee voted unanimously to end the inquiry. While concluding that ''isolated instances'' of voter fraud did occur, Warner said there was no evidence to prove that there was a ''widespread effort to illegally affect the outcome of this election,'' or that Landrieu had any involvement in the violation of election laws.

In the Senate, Landrieu has a generally moderate voting record, a little more liberal than that of colleague John Breaux. Her first bill was for a $5 million block grant for adoption services; her two children are adopted. She backs adoption tax credits and wants higher breaks for those who adopt special needs or foster children. She was the lead co-sponsor of the law providing for speedy citizenship for foreign-born children adopted by U.S. citizens; when it went into effect it created the largest number of new U.S. citizens ever on a single day.

Landrieu was one of four Democrats voting for the $792 billion Republican tax cut in July 1999, and one of eight to vote for marriage penalty repeal in July 2000. She voted for the $1.35 trillion compromise tax cut in May 2001. But she voted against the confirmation of John Ashcroft in February 2001. She was the only Democrat who joined in co-sponsoring Sam Brownback's bill to prohibit human cloning for reproduction or research. In January 2001 Landrieu won a seat on the Appropriations Committee. In 2002 she announced many Louisiana projects, including creation of the Red River National Wildlife Refuge, and $500,000 for museum exhibits commemorating the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. In January 2003 she put into the omnibus appropriation $10 million a year for five years to help historically black colleges and universities renovate their historic buildings.

All the while she was running hard for reelection in 2002. She was an obvious Republican target, because of the closeness of her margin in 1996 and because George W. Bush carried Louisiana in 2000. In early 2001 the only active Republican candidate was 5th District Congressman John Cooksey, a north Louisiana ophthalmologist. But on September 18, 2001, a week after September 11, in a radio interview in Louisiana, he said, "If I see someone comes in that's got a diaper on his head and a fan belt wrapped around the diaper on his head, the guy needs to be pulled over." He acknowledged that this was "racial profiling," but said, "When you've got a group of people who are not American citizens, who are of Arab descent and they were involved in killing 5,000 Americans. … I think we can and should scrutinize people that fit that profile until this war on terrorism is over." Cooksey spent $200,000 on radio ads defending his comments.

Cooksey's candidacy was undone by one word, "diaper." It was obvious that the Bush White House did not want to have the president portrayed as supporting a candidate whose remark would be an embarrassment to the United States in the Middle East. For such a candidate no flow of Republican money and no presidential visits would be forthcoming. Louisiana has a late filing deadline, and other Republicans started thinking about running. The NRSC, headed by Bill Frist, started encouraging other Republicans to run. In May 2002 state Representative Tony Perkins, a sponsor of a school prayer bill, met with Frist and decided to run. Perkins telegraphed Frist's strategy. "Republicans' best shot is to get a multiple field of candidates in this race. If we can get Landrieu in a runoff, it will be like the Coverdell runoff [in Georgia] in 1992. This is our seat." Perkins also encouraged Elections Commissioner Suzanne Haik Terrell to run. "I would like to see Suzie Terrell in the race because she would draw votes from Mary in New Orleans." Terrell was elected to the New Orleans Council in 1994 and in 1999 she ousted longtime state Elections Commissioner Jerry Fowler and in the runoff beat none other than Woody Jenkins. There she pushed through legislation to abolish her office. Terrell had been mentioned as a candidate for Senate, but during the spring seemed uninterested; she did not announce until July 9.

In July the NRSC started running what would eventually be $2 million of TV ads against Landrieu. "There's just something about Mary and higher taxes," said one. "Landrieu voted in favor of higher taxes over 120 times." Landrieu seemed further imperiled in July when Cleo Fields said he was thinking about running and might spend $1 million of his own money. "There is no secret that Mary Landrieu was not respectful to the black community," he said, no doubt referring to the 1995 governor campaign. But Fields bowed out in early August. Playing defense, Landrieu ran ads saying she supported Bush 74% of the time and that only two Democrats, Zell Miller and John Breaux, had voted more often with Bush. At the end of August Frist announced that the NRSC would support Terrell and spend the allowed $464,000 on her behalf. His strategy was obviously to hold Landrieu below 50% in November, and he evidently calculated, as Perkins had, that Terrell, a New Orleans Catholic, was better positioned than the two north Louisiana Protestants to take votes away from Landrieu in the New Orleans area. Other Republicans were angry. Mike Foster, who had considered running himself up to the August 23 filing deadline, endorsed Cooksey. Later Foster said, "I didn't like that the nationals came down here and took over the race and gave all the money to one candidate."

In mid-October Landrieu started running anti-Terrell ads, charging that taxes and spending went up in New Orleans when she was on the Council. Perkins ran ads attacking Landrieu for living in a "Washington mansion"; she said she wanted to be close to her small children. The NRSC ran ads saying that Landrieu's voting record was similar to Hillary Rodham Clinton's. On November 5, as Republicans were gaining a majority in the Senate by picking up seats in Georgia, Minnesota and Missouri, Landrieu failed to clinch a victory. She won 46% of the vote, to 27% for Terrell, 14% for Cooksey and 10% for Perkins. The three Republicans together led Landrieu 51%-46%.

If Republicans had picked up only one seat in November and had lost one seat, as they did, in Arkansas, all eyes would have moved now to Louisiana, for the race would have determined which party would have the majority in the Senate. Now it would just determine whether the Republican majority would be 51-49 or 52-48: important but not world-shaking. On the Democratic side there was discontent among black leaders about Landrieu's ads proclaiming her 74% support of Bush, and there was some indication that black turnout was low. Cleo Fields said, "All that talk about supporting the president turned my stomach."

In debates the two candidates tangled about abortion. In one debate Terrell said, "I'm 100% pro-life. As a practicing Catholic, I did not leave my faith, as did Mary Landrieu." Her reference was to Landrieu's votes for taxpayer funding of abortions. Landrieu replied, "I have a good relationship with my God and my savior. I respect life. At least I'm consistent in my positon, not like Ms. Terrell, who has had four positions on this issue in the past four weeks." After another debate, on leaving the TV studio Landrieu said to Terrell, "This is your last campaign." Terrell, taken aback, said "She threatened me." The candidates continued to argue about tax cuts, personnel rules for the Department of Homeland Security and privatizing government jobs. Then a Democratic opposition researcher made a propitious find--an article in the Mexican center-left newspaper Reforma reporting that the Bush administration had agreed with the Mexican government to double the amount of sugar that could be imported from Mexico. The Office of Special Trade Representative and the State Department denied that any such agreement had been made. But Landrieu trumpeted the claim in ads and promised to do everything she could to stop any such agreement. Sugar is a heavily protected crop, with U.S. prices kept at levels three times the world price; Louisiana is the prime cane sugar producing state. Even so, the issue does not affect huge numbers of people--there are perhaps 32,000 Louisianans involved in sugar production or processing.

But it was a fine issue for Landrieu to document her claim that Terrell would be a "rubber stamp" for Bush, even though Terrell said she opposed any such deal as well. It turned out the Reforma story was wrong; Landrieu met with trade and State Department officials in January 2003 and reported that there was no deal. But it may have changed enough votes to give Landrieu her 52%-48% victory.

Landrieu also owed her victory to a money advantage and to good turnout efforts. National Republicans spent $6.3 million in Louisiana to national Democrats' $4.6 million, but the Landrieu campaign spent $7.4 million and the late-starting Terrell campaign only $2.8 million.

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DC Office
724 HSOB 20510, 202-224-5824; Fax: 202-224-9735; Web site: landrieu.senate.gov

State Offices
Baton Rouge, 225-389-0395; Lake Charles,337-436-6650; New Orleans,504-589-2427; Shreveport,318-676-3085.

Committees

• Appropriations: Agriculture & Rural Development; District of Columbia (RMM); Foreign Operations; Labor, HHS & Education; Military Construction.
• Energy & Natural Resources: Energy; National Parks; Public Lands & Forests.
• Small Business & Entrepreneurship.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	70	75	75	12	23	88	26	84	35	15	--
2001	85	--	75	38	--	--	24	69	28	--	20

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	56%	--	44%		51%	--	48%
Social	59%	--	41%		64%	--	34%
Foreign	51%	--	43%		53%	--	46%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 2. Expand Patients' Rights Y 3. Campaign Finance Reform Y 4. Permit ANWR Development Y 5. Confirm Ashcroft as AG N 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts N		7. $ for Hate Crime Prosecution Y  8. Overseas Military Abortions Y  9. Bar Coop. with Intl. Court Y 10. Trade Promotion Authority Y 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Homeland Sec. Dept. Union Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general run off	Mary Landrieu (D)	638,654	52%	$7,384,554
	Suzanne Haik Terrell (R)	596,642	48%	$2,760,276
2002 primary	Mary Landrieu (D)	573,347	46%
	Suzanne Haik Terrell (R)	339,506	27%
	John Cooksey (R)	171,752	14%
	Tony Perkins (R)	119,776	10%
	Other	41,952	3%
1996 general	Mary Landrieu (D)	852,945	50%	$2,504,815
	Louis (Woody) Jenkins (R)	847,157	50%	$1,878,242
1990 primary	J. Bennett Johnston (D)	752,902	54%	$5,389,624
	David Duke (R)	607,391	44%	$2,615,267
	Other	35,820	3%