Republican Secretary of State Jay Dardenne said this week that he won’t challenge Sen. David Vitter in the GOP primary later this year, ending his year-long flirtation with the race.
Dardenne’s announcement eliminates the possibility that Vitter will face a competitive primary in the fall. Vitter’s confession two and a half years ago that he had committed “a very serious sin” after Hustler magazine reported that his phone numbers appeared in the call logs of the DC Madam had the potential to create problems for him in a GOP primary dominated by socially conservative voters. It won’t be nearly as significant a liability in the general election. A Vitter-Dardenne primary would have been expensive and the ultimate nominee would have headed into the general election bruised and with a depleted campaign war chest. Without a competitive primary, Vitter can now focus on the general election and the presumptive Democratic nominee, Rep. Charlie Melancon.
While Melancon has been running a very aggressive campaign, he is running the race with the wind in his face. Even in strong Democratic years like 2008,
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