With Big Lead in Senate Race, Republicans Gain From State Scandals : GOP Riding High in Staunchly Democratic Louisiana

Here in the Great State of Louisiana, where they’ve got gumbo, alligators and yellow dog Democrats, a Republican is ahead of the pack in the race for the U.S. Senate.

Yellow dog Democrats, as Southerners call them, would rather vote for a yellow dog than a Republican. There hasn’t been a Republican senator from Louisiana in more than 100 years.

The time was, not so long ago, when Republicans in Louisiana couldn’t buy an election. Democrats controlled everything, from parish assessor to governor to the U.S. Senate. The biggest worry that a Democratic candidate had was which Democrat was going to run against him.

‘The Party’s Over’

But things aren’t the same in this state, where Democrats have been touched by scandal from the Statehouse to the pardons board. Republican Rep. W. Henson Moore, promising that “The Party’s Over,” is leading a field of 14 candidates appearing on Saturday’s open primary ballot. They all want to succeed Russell B. Long, who is retiring after 38 years in the Senate.

The national Republican Party is pulling out all the stops for Moore because he represents one of their best chances of taking a Senate seat away from the Democrats. The polls show Moore’s nearest rival, Democratic Rep. John B. Breaux, almost 20 points behind. President Reagan came to New Orleans for the second time last week to push Moore’s campaign.

Breaux, meanwhile, must try to hang on to his second-place position with several other Democrats yapping at his heels, even though he has the party endorsement and has been campaigning for a year and a half.

A great deal is at stake for both parties. Under Louisiana’s unique electoral system, all candidates run on the same primary ballot, no matter which party they belong to. If one person takes more than 50% of the vote in the primary, there is no runoff race in November.

Seen as Big Boost

So if Moore were to win the seat in the primary--considered possible but unlikely--it would be an early shot in the arm for the Republican effort to retain control of the Senate.

The Democrats hope to force a runoff in which their candidate, with a united party behind him, would keep the seat in their column and boost the party’s chances of retaking the Senate.

If history is any barometer, the Democrats have a good shot at assembling a new Senate majority. In the last 40 years, the party that has controlled the presidency has lost an average of seven seats in the Senate during the sixth year of the Administration. The Democrats need a net gain of four seats to retake control of the Senate. They are defending 12 seats, compared to 22 for the Republicans.

So why is Moore so far ahead of the pack in a state where 80% of the registered voters are Democrats?

One of the reasons is money. The Moore campaign has spent roughly $4 million, compared to the estimated $2 million by Breaux.

But perhaps the overriding reason is Louisiana itself, a state that seems to breed corruption, where talk about buying votes on Election Day is common. Moore has based much of his campaign on bringing a new kind of politics to Louisiana, contending that the electorate is tired of living in a state weighted down with a sordid reputation.

Abundance of Material

Certainly Moore has a wealth of material from which to draw.

The state’s pardons board chairman and House speaker pro tem were charged this month with taking bribes to arrange the release of a murderer. More indictments are expected.

Gov. Edwin W. Edwards was tried twice for racketeering and mail and wire fraud. Although the governor was acquitted, the trials were embarrassing for the Democrats, and Edwards has remained silent during the Senate campaign because his voice could hurt the ticket. And the state education superintendent is scheduled to go on trial in November for malfeasance, payroll fraud and obstruction of justice. The list goes on and on.

Moore seems to have struck a chord, but it is unclear how much people care about a race in which the winner will go to Washington. Even now the Senate race does not spark as much interest as speculation about next year’s gubernatorial elections. In Louisiana, that is where the real power lies because the governor controls so many appointments. Things have not changed much since the days of Huey and Earl Long.

“That’s always been true and always will be,” said Jim Brady, the state’s Democratic chairman.

In addition, the Senate race is not flooded with issues.

Both Stress Economy

Both Moore and Breaux have emphasized the need to revitalize Louisiana’s dormant economy, which is based on oil and agriculture. And both are for an oil import fee.

But the emphasis in the campaign is more personal.

The two candidates are Washington veterans. Breaux, 42, was the youngest member of Congress when he was elected to the House in 1972. Moore, 47, was elected three years later.

Moore contends that Breaux missed more than 1,000 votes during his 14 years in the House and that he had a penchant for taking junkets. Breaux counters that all of those votes were on bills in which his presence would not have made any difference. Overall, he says, he has an 85% voting record. The trips, he adds, were strictly business.

In one ad, aimed at black voters, Moore contended that Breaux opposed a bill making the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a national holiday. In fact, Breaux co-sponsored the legislation in 1983 that passed the House.

For his part, Breaux charges that Moore is an inept legislator. He contends that his Republican opponent did not author a single bill that was signed into law by Reagan, while he himself has authored 19 such measures.

At a press conference after Reagan’s appearance, Moore denied the charge but said he did not know how many of his bills had passed.

Breaux also has attempted to paint Moore as a man who is attempting to buy the election, no matter what the cost.

Appearance of Cronyism

But Breaux has failed to link the Reagan Administration with the economic ills of the state. And he must battle the stigma of being linked with Edwards. He was the governor’s legislative assistant when Edwards was a congressman. Breaux succeeded Edwards when he left Washington to run for governor. It is that appearance of cronyism that has played into Moore’s hand.

But in Louisiana, anything can happen and usually does. Moore said he believes the race will be decided in November. His pollster, Lance Tarrence of Houston, gives Moore only the slimmest shot at capturing more than 50% of the vote Saturday. He said that the vote will be a close one in November because of the large percentage of Democratic voters.

“Just by showing up for work, a Democrat can get 45% to 48% of the vote,” he said.

While Moore is shown on the evening news with Reagan and Vice President George Bush and a string of Republican stars, Breaux has only the endorsement of Long and a dwindling war chest.

Hits the Back Roads

The other day, he was bumping along the back roads of his home district of Arcadia Parish, in the heart of Cajun country. Loyal parish officials were with him in the motor home being used for the occasion. He stopped at Church Point and danced a bit with the Cajun Ladies, a group of senior citizens, in front of City Hall.

He pressed flesh in Rayne, the self-professed frog capital of the world. He stopped at a shopping center outside Crowley, where a man walked up to him and asked if the U.S. Senate was a better job than the one he had now.

“I’ve had no surprises. I knew I would be outspent. I knew I would have to work harder,” Breaux said. But, he adds: “The smart money says that if Moore doesn’t win in the first primary, he can’t win.”