Sen. David Vitter was one of the first Republican senators to announce his opposition to Loretta Lynch as the nation’s next attorney general, saying she was “in lockstep with” President Barack Obama’s “illegal executive amnesty.”
The Louisiana senator voted against Lynch’s nomination at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this year and vowed to do it again if the Senate takes up her nomination after the spring recess.
Political experts tell USA Today that move and his take-no-prisoners approach to challenging the administration will likely play well for Vitter in his bid for governor this year. Vitter is considered the favorite in the race—which also includes Republicans Scott Angelle and Jay Dardenne, as well as Democrats John Bel Edwards and Jeremy Odom—particularly among conservatives.
“That’s Vitter’s strength,” says local pollster Bernie Pinsonat. “It won’t necessarily elect him governor, but it keeps those voters in his corner.”
Lynch is the most recent Obama nominee Vitter has opposed. He was one of two Republicans to oppose Hillary Clinton’s nomination as secretary of state in 2009. He has also blocked or slowed action on major bills, including bipartisan energy legislation, to make a political point. This month, he introduced a controversial amendment that would grant citizenship to children born in the U.S. only if their parents are U.S. citizens, permanent legal residents or members of the military. He’s trying to attach it to a bill to reduce human trafficking. It’s still pending.
Pinsonat calls it “vintage Vitter.”
“They can question it up in Washington and they can criticize him all they want, but back home with his base he’s enormously popular,” Pinsonat says. “He’s not out-of-bounds or out-of-step by doing this. He’s in-step and perfectly on-message.”
But Vitter’s tactics have also drawn sharp criticism.
“He’s got a penchant for grandstanding and posturing. He was that way in the (state) Legislature,” says former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, who now heads the National Urban League. “It’s not new for David Vitter. He was that way as a member of Congress.”
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