Kennedy began career as counsel to Roemer

• By MARSHA SHULER
• Capitol news bureau
• Published: Oct 26, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 p.m.

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In 2004, Democratic state Treasurer John Kennedy ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate and counted now-indicted U.S. Rep. William Jefferson of New Orleans among his supporters.

Today, Kennedy is again running for the U.S. Senate but this time as a conservative Republican with Gov. Bobby Jindal in his corner.
Louisiana’s three-term state treasurer — re-elected without opposition as both a Democrat and then last year as a new Republican — said there is nothing strange about it.

“I got all kinds of endorsements through the years,” Kennedy said. “What they got was me and my beliefs and the best job I can do.

“I was a Democrat for a long time. But as a Democrat I worked for two Republican governors and as a Democrat I was not afraid to take on my own party when I disagreed,” said Kennedy.

Kennedy said he was “a great underdog” in the 2004 Senate race when Jefferson — the state’s only black congressman — endorsed him. “I asked for support from a wide variety of people. … The Democratic establishment did not support me,” he said.

Kennedy adds that Jefferson also has previously backed Democrat U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, whom he now is trying to stop from gaining a third six-year term.

The party switch

The 56-year-old Kennedy switched to the Republican Party in 2007 shortly before he signed up to run for another term as treasurer. At the time, GOP leaders said Kennedy’s switch would tell voters that his core beliefs are conservative.

That’s the message Kennedy is taking to voters these days.

“I’m conservative and I’ll fight for them. It doesn’t matter who I have to take on. I think my record shows that I’ve spent most of my career trying to fight for the taxpayer,” said Kennedy during an interview in his State Capitol office.

“I’ve made some enemies doing that but I think I made the right people mad,” he said.

In recent years, Kennedy has been at odds with Democrats — former Gov. Kathleen Blanco, former state Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom and former Louisiana Senate President Don Hines — butting heads over issues that relate to how state taxpayer money is spent.

Hines calls Kennedy a “political opportunist.”