Vitter to run again

• By GERARD SHIELDS
• Advocate Washington bureau
• Published: Dec 21, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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WASHINGTON – If anyone needed evidence that U.S. Sen. David Vitter will run for reelection in 2010, they got it last week.

The Louisiana Republican held a Washington fundraiser where he gained $200,000 for his campaign. Maybe more important for Vitter was the collection of support he got from high-profile Louisiana Republicans.

Gov. Bobby Jindal was the headliner of the event, also sponsored by the state’s four Republican House members and six former Republican congressmen, including GOP stalwarts such as Billy Tauzin and Bob Livingston.

That the Louisiana Republican establishment is standing by Vitter, despite the revelation last year of his being involved in a Washington prostitution scandal, is vital to his re-election.

National political observers agree that Vitter is probably the most-vulnerable Republican in the Senate up for re-election in two years and that he’ll be campaigning with a big political bull’s-eye on his back for Democrats to shoot at.

“I think he better start early,” said Stu Rothenberg, publisher of The Rothenberg Political Report in Washington. “It won’t be easy.”

Vitter avoided a runoff in 2004, winning outright with more than 50 percent of the vote to become the first Louisiana Republican senator since reconstruction.

Vitter’s fortunes turned, however, in July 2007 when he was forced to admit that he committed a “serious sin” in his past. His phone number was found on a client list of a high-priced Washington prostitution ring during his days as a House member between 1999 and 2001.

Vitter supporters, such as Republican U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander of Quitman, say they’ve put the matter behind them.

“I think he’s doing a good job,” Alexander said. “He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever seen. He made a mistake but as long as he keeps working for the good of Louisiana, we’re going to support him.”

“He’ll have to answer to the voters,” Jindal said Wednesday when asked about Vitter’s refusal to discuss the prostitution scandal. 

“He’s going to have the chance to do that in the next few years,” said Jindal, adding that it was much too early to decide who he will support in the senate race. 

“I was asked to attend the fundraiser,” Jindal said Wednesday. Vitter is a member of the congressional delegation and as such deserving of the attention of the state’s governor, he said.