From the Editor: Region could be key Senate race battleground

A political quirk in Louisiana takes what in most other state is a sprint and turns it into a three-year marathon.
Our governor, legislators and other statewide leaders are elected in the year before a presidential election. That means we go directly from off-year federal elections to a year of statewide campaigns and then into a presidential election year with U.S. House elections thrown in.
And, of course, we have U.S. Senate elections, too. The 2016 version will be of more than passing interest here.
That’s because two of the leading Republican candidates — there aren’t any Democratic candidates yet — are from opposite ends of one nine-mile stretch of Interstate 10. And Monday was a big day for both of them.
In Lafayette, Charles Boustany announced his candidacy on a tent-covered tennis court at the St. Mary Boulevard home where his father and mother raised 10 children. Like his father, Boustany became a physician, a heart surgeon, but for the last 11 years he’s had another gig. He’s been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives six times, rising to chair a tax policy subcommittee in the powerful Ways & Means Committee.
Earlier that day, a poll by Market Research Insight found that, in a head-to-head matchup with the other announced or potential Republican candidates, the leader is Scott Angelle of Breaux Bridge. Although Angelle hasn’t formally announced his candidacy, he was the pick of 24 percent of the respondents and had the highest name recognition among the GOP hopefuls at 88 percent.
Boustany and state Treasurer John Kennedy were the picks of 15 percent each, while Minden congressman John Fleming and tea party favorite Rob Maness were trailing.
Democratic Mayor Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans was the top draw in the poll with 30 percent, but he says he won’t run. No other prominent Democrat seems ready or willing to take on the top Republicans.
Angelle is a former Department of Natural Resources secretary and acting lieutenant governor now ensconced on the Public Service Commission. He’s also coming off a third-place finish in the gubernatorial primary that put state Rep. John Bel Edwards and incumbent U.S. Sen. David Vitter into last month’s runoff, setting up Democrat Edwards’ improbable victory.
If Angelle gets into the race, he and Boustany will bring very different styles into the fight for Acadiana as a political base.
Angelle has a French name and the hint of a Cajun accent, which sometimes goes a long way with the people who know that James Carville isn’t really a Cajun. Angelle became prominent in local politics as president the St. Martin Parish government.
He can be a firebrand public speaker, as he showed when a summer 2010 rally against the post-BP offshore drilling moratorium packed Lafayette’s Cajundome. Angelle will not have to waste time convincing people that he’s an anti-Obama candidate.
Boustany has been more workman-like in the course of his House career.
Picking up White House support in his bid to take the seat being vacated by Democrat Chris John in the old 7th District in 2004, Boustany won 55 percent of the vote in a runoff against Willie Mount of Lake Charles.
That was as close as any challenger would get. Boustany won his fifth term when Louisiana lost one of its seven congressional seats after the 2010 Census. He won a redistricting battle that resulted in a 3rd District, his current district, composed of the heart of the old Lafayette-to-Lake Charles 7th District with St. Mary, Iberia and St. Martin parishes tacked on the east end.
Boustany beat the Republican who got squeezed out, freshman Republican Jeff Landry, who was recently elected state attorney general.
The maneuvering showed some political muscle on Boustany’s part. Until then, he was known mostly for his behind-the-scenes work on behalf of hurricane victims, attempts to protect the local energy and seafood industries, and a successful effort to keep Congress from hoarding harbor and port maintenance fees paid by shippers.
Lately, Boustany has pushed for a delay in a tax he considers a burden on small businesses to help pay for Obamacare. He used his position on Ways & Means to tear into the Internal Revenue Service amid allegations that the service targeted conservative political groups for additional scrutiny related to their tax-exempt status. But by then, the GOP headline-makers had moved on to Benghazi and Hillary Clinton’s surreptitious email server.
On Monday, Boustany accused President Barack Obama of “weak and listless” leadership in national security policy. So he doesn’t seem likely to be flanked by Angelle when it comes to bashing a president who remains unpopular in Louisiana.
Boustany also has the incumbent congressman’s secret weapon: constituent service. If residents of the 3rd District have trouble getting a Social Security check or if some immigration problem crops up, they often turn to the helpful folks at the local congressman’s district office. And that gives congressmen lots of chances to make voters happy.
So that’s where we’re at, or will be if Angelle gets in the race. South Louisiana will be the scene for one of the most interesting subplots of the 2016 Senate election.
Bill Decker is managing editor of The Daily Review.