Mary Landrieu

Mary Landrieu
Senior Senator from Louisiana
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 7, 1997 Serving with David Vitter
Preceded by	J. Bennett Johnston
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 53) Arlington, Virginia
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Frank Snellings
Children	Connor Landrieu Mary Shannon Landrieu
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 senators Rose Long (1936) 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,^[1] and is a member of the New Democrat Coalition.

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.

1996 Senate election

Main article: United States Senate election in Louisiana, 1996

Landrieu was elected in 1996 to the U.S. Senate seat previously held by John Bennett Johnston, Jr. of Shreveport after winning a close and controversial runoff election against Louisiana State Representative Woody Jenkins.

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 won re-election again on November 4th, 2008 in a close race against her challenger, Louisiana State Treasurer John N. Kennedy, a former Democrat who switched to the Republican Party in 2007.^[3]

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 (Chairwoman)
  • 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 (Chairwoman)
  • 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

Controversies

Gang of 14

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 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.

Hurricane Katrina

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

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.

In the weeks following Katrina, Landrieu and fellow Senator David Vitter co-sponsored the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief and Economic Recovery Act of 2005 (S.1765)^[6], a 440-page aid package worth an estimated $250 billion^[7][8] (roughly $550,000 per resident) in order to rebuild New Orleans, a city of 453,726 pre-Katrina.^[9] The bill was read twice by Congress, then referred to the United States Senate Committee on Finance.^[10]

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.^[11]

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.^[12] This earned her a spot on the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington "Top 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress" report.^[13]

Election history

United States Senate, 1996

See also: United States Senate election in Louisiana, 1996

Threshold > 50%

First ballot, September 21, 1996

Second ballot, November 5, 1996

United States Senate, 2002

See also: United States Senate election in Louisiana, 2002

Threshold > 50%

First ballot, November 5, 2002

Second ballot, December 7, 2002

United States Senate, 2008

See also: United States Senate election in Louisiana, 2008

References

External links

• 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

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

Current elected statewide political officials of Louisiana U.S. Senators Mary Landrieu (D) · David Vitter (R) State government Bobby Jindal (R), Governor · Mitch Landrieu (D), Lieutenant Governor · Jay Dardenne (R), Secretary of State · Buddy Caldwell (D), Attorney General · John Neely Kennedy (R), Treasurer · Mike Strain (R), Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner · Jim Donelon (R), Insurance Commissioner Senate Joel Chaisson (D), President · Sharon Weston Broome (D), President pro tempore House Jim Tucker (R), Speaker · Karen Carter Peterson (D), Speaker pro tempore Supreme Court Pascal Calogero, Jr., Chief Justice · Jeffrey Victory · Jeanette Theriot Knoll · Chet Traylor · Catherine Kimball · John Weimer · Bernette Joshua Johnson