Cassidy Pegged A “Loser” For Horrendous Q3 Fundraising As Conservatives Look For An Alternative & Yet Another GOPer Mulls Entering Race To Challenge Cassidy

Polling Shows Cassidy-Led Shutdown Absolutely Devastating For His 2014 Chances

New Orleans, Louisiana – In case it wasn’t clear that Bill Cassidy’s listless campaign for Senate is in serious trouble, analyst Larry Sabato has now moved the Louisiana Senate race from “Toss-up” to “Leaning Democratic.”

Explaining the landscape shift in the marquee Senate race, Sabato writes:

“Not only has the national Republican brand suffered, but Rep. Bill Cassidy (R), [Mary Landrieu’s] likely opponent, has not impressed with his fundraising. While Landrieu raised close to $1.4 million in the last quarter, Cassidy only could manage to pull in $700,000. She now has significantly more cash-on-hand than Cassidy ($5.8 million to $3.4 million). Cassidy also voted against the debt ceiling compromise…”

Sabato’s analysis echoes what Louisianians across the political spectrum are starting to see – Bill Cassidy is a weak and seriously flawed candidate whose campaign is on the ropes.

Bill Cassidy banked less than $200k this past fundraising quarter, a horrendous haul that resulted in him being named a fundraiser “loser” by the Washington Post and National Journal. Cassidy’s anemic fundraising led Louisiana’s leading conservative blog to state that Cassidy’s campaign “has lost steam” and is “stuck in neutral,” and “Cassidy may not be the party’s best shot at defeating Landrieu.” In contrast to Cassidy’s “fundraising woes,” Mary Landrieu’s $5.8 million cash on hand is more than any Democratic Senator or candidate in a competitive race has banked ahead of 2014.

Cassidy is already facing a challenge on the Republican side from Rob Maness, he may soon face another from Shreveport State Rep. Alan Seabaugh and Covington State Rep. Paul Hollis is now considering entering the race to challenge Cassidy. Maness has coined the term “Cassidycare” to describe legislation Cassidy tried to pass in 2007 that was nearly identical to Obamacare (which Cassidy shut down the government in order to delay – talk about a textbook definition of hypocrisy). Meanwhile Seabaugh has said without equivocation that Cassidy can’t beat Mary Landrieu.

As Cassidy tries – and fails – to shore up his support among Republicans who rightfully don’t trust him given his record of hypocrisy on health care reform and inexplicable campaign donations to Mary Landrieu and other Democrats, his shameful government shutdown and vote to send the U.S. economy into default might very well sink his dwindling chances if he is still the leading Republican candidate next year.

A poll last week showed Louisianians overwhelmingly opposed Bill Cassidy’s government shutdown by a monstrous 60 to 30 percent margin. Mary Landrieu led Bill Cassidy by 7 percentage points, and when voters were informed about Cassidy’s decision to shut down the government, he trailed by double digits. Worse for Cassidy, Louisianians were polled before his latest vote to continue the government shutdown and send the U.S. economy into default, indicating Cassidy’s support has eroded even further since then.

The bottom line is this: Bill Cassidy is in serious trouble, and has no one to blame for his consistent campaign missteps except himself.

“Louisianians across the political spectrum are starting to see that Bill Cassidy is a weak and seriously flawed candidate whose campaign is on the ropes, and whose record of shutting down the government and voting for default in order to delay the same health care reforms he tried to pass in 2007 proves that he simply can’t be trusted to fight for Louisiana families,” said Campaign for Louisiana Communications Director Andrew Zucker.

BACKGROUND

Five Times, Cassidy Voted For Extreme House Republican Plans That Would Shut Down Government. [Vote #478, 9/20/13; CNN, 9/20/13; CNN, 9/29/13; Vote #498, 9/29/13; Vote 502, 9/30/13; Vote 504, 9/30/13; Vote 505, 10/1/13]

Cassidy Signed A Letter Asking GOP House Leadership Not To Support Any Spending Bill Unless The Affordable Care Act Is Defunded. “U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy joined more than one-third of U.S. House Republicans in urging the leadership to threaten to force a government shutdown unless Obamacare is defunded… The letter that Cassidy signed onto includes 80 of the House’s 233 Republicans and asks the GOP House leadership not to support any spending bill — including a needed continuing resolution to avoid a partial government shutdown after Sept. 30 — unless the Affordable Care Act health care law is defunded.” [The Advocate, 8/25/13]

Cassidy and House Republicans Voted Sixteen Times Against Efforts to Re-Open the Government. Daines and House Republicans voted sixteen times against efforts to vote on a clean government funding resolution by allowing consideration of the Senate-passed continuing resolution. [H Res 370, Vote #509, 10/02/13; HJ Res 70, Vote #512, 10/02/13; HR 3230, Vote #515, 10/03/13; HJ Res 72, Vote #517, 10/03/13; H Res 371, Vote #519, 10/04/13; HJ Res 85, Vote #521, 10/04/13; HJ Res 75, Vote #523, 10/04/13; H J Res 77,  Vote #527, 10/7/13; HJ Res 84, Vote #529, 10/08/13; H Res 373, Vote #531, 10/08/13; HR 3273, Vote #533, 10/08/13; HJ Res 90, Vote #536, 10/09/13; HJ Res 79, Vote #539, 10/10/13; HJ Res 76, Vote #541, 10/11/13; HJ Res 80, Vote #547, 10/14/13; HJ Res 80, Vote #549, 10/14/13]

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