One last Senate campaign - gumbo style

Certainly, Louisiana has had its share of attention-getting politicians - though the publicity they've generated has as often been for negative as for positive reasons. Former Gov. Edwin Edwards, who was recently imprisoned for extortion, is just one of a long line of corrupt officials.

In addition, the state's open primary system has helped launch some extremists from both parties. In 1991, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke won 32 percent of the vote in the gubernatorial primary, making it to the runoff (where he then lost to Edwards).

Both women in this year's runoff are more moderate than extreme. Indeed, the two have taken similar positions on an array of issues from tax cuts to homeland security. But the race has also taken on a strikingly nasty tone.

Ironically, despite being a relative unknown before the primary election, Terrell has in some ways become the "Washington insider" of the race. An array of Washington heavyweights have come down to stump for her, from George Bush Sr. to Senator-elect Elizabeth Dole.

By contrast, Landrieu has had virtually no national Democrats campaign on her behalf, aside from the state's senior senator, John Breaux. But her name has a certain local star power of its own. Her father, Moon Landrieu, was a popular mayor of New Orleans and throughout the city, locals will repeatedly tell you, "she comes from good people."

"Her family was always for the working people," says Joe Bertucci, a construction union official in New Orleans.

THE key to the race, both sides agree, will be who gets voters to the polls. Republicans are trying to boost participation among conservative whites - bringing in Georgia GOP chairman Ralph Reed, who engineered a major get-out-the-vote operation among rural white voters in his state - while Democrats focus intently on the black vote.

"This race is clearly about turnout," says Senator Breaux. "If turnout is high enough in the African-American community, Mary wins. If it's not, she doesn't."

Landrieu has been campaigning hard in black churches across the state. But some black leaders have criticized her publicly for failing to address issues that concern the minority community.

Complicating Landrieu's task is the fact that the state's white voters tend to be fairly conservative. Louisiana is heavily Roman Catholic, and abortion has been a prominent issue. (Landrieu is pro-choice, but favors certain restrictions. Terrell is antiabortion, but has been accused of changing her position.)

The struggle for Landrieu - as for other Democratic politicians across the South - is somehow to craft an appeal that will motivate liberal black voters to go to the polls, without losing the support of too many whites at the same time. Democratic losses in Southern states testify to the growing difficulty in holding this kind of coalition together.

Many Democrats argued that the party was too timid in criticizing Bush this fall. And in recent weeks Landrieu has gone from declaring wholehearted support for the president to emphasizing her "independence." She's also begun highlighting areas where the administration's policies have hurt Louisiana, criticizing the president's decision to impose tariffs on foreign steel as costing thousands of jobs.

Speaking at a weatherbeaten union hall down by the docks in New Orleans, Landrieu called attention this week to a rumored trade agreement to allow for greater imports of Mexican sugar, which she says would devastate the local sugar industry. The administration says no such decision has been made.

Yet this more aggressive stance could also backfire in a state where Bush's approval ratings stand in the mid-70s. If Landrieu's tactics fail, it will leave Democrats even less certain how to mount an effective campaign in 2004.

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