Landrieu wins re-election bid

NEW ORLEANS—Democratic incum-bent Mary Landrieu ruined national Republican hopes of picking up a new U.S. Senate seat in an overall dismal night for the GOP.
Landrieu, 52, defeated Republican state Treasurer John Kennedy on Tuesday night, holding onto the nation’s only vulnerable Democratic Senate seat. Landrieu picked up 52 percent of the vote, compared with 46 percent for Kennedy.
Her re-election to a third term fell short of the double-digit margin of victory predicted in independent polls, but marked a significant improvement for a senator who has never won easily. Landrieu took the open seat in 1996 by fewer than 5,800 votes and retained it six years later by 42,000 votes. This time, she won by more than 100,000 votes.
Republicans thought they could oust Landrieu after Hurricane Katrina scattered the population of her New Orleans base of support, but the incumbent senator capitalized on voter enthusiasm for Democrat Barack Obama and also picked up backing from moderate voters who supported Republican John McCain for the presidency.
“Two years ago, the pundits said, ‘She’s not going to be able to do it. She’s not going to be able to win again’ because there was what they called a ‘Katrina effect’ … but the fact is there was an opposite effect.”