From Landrieu to Landry to Roemer, the ripple effect of Sen. Snowe's retirement

on March 01, 2012 at 8:30 AM, updated March 01, 2012 at 1:25 PM

WASHINGTON -- So how does the surprise announcement by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, that she will not run for another term, affect Louisiana's political scene? Let us count the ways.

Sen. Olympia Snowe announces her retirement.JPGSen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, has announced that she will not seek a fourth term this fall, tipping a lot of political dominoes.

First, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., is losing her Republican counterpart at the helm of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, a bipartisan tandem that, while not without its rough patches, was by modern standards, close and cooperative.

"We were able to find a way to work through our differences and focus on our common goal to make government work for America's job creators," said Landrieu.

Secondly, Snowe's departure increases the likelihood of a Democratic pickup in the Senate, slightly diminishing the chances of a Republican takeover that would put Landrieu in the minority and Sen. David Vitter, R-La., in the majority.

Thirdly, there is the potential impact on the prospective race between Reps. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, and Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia. How's that? Well, Brent Littlefield, the political mastermind behind Landry's campaign, is a Maine native with deep political roots there who was the architect of Paul LePage's 2010 victory which made him the first Republican governor in Maine in 16 years. As soon as Snowe made her announcement, Littlefield's phone began ringing and there seems to be a good likelihood that he will end up involved in some candidate's campaign for Snowe's seat. That would not preclude Littlefield's involvement in Landry's do-or-die campaign -- he is used to handling more than one campaign at a time - but it could divert a smidgen of his attention northward from Louisiana.

And fourth, there is the matter of how Snowe's announcement affects Buddy Roemer's independent run for the White House. Huh?

Here's how. No sooner did Snowe announce she was bowing out than speculation began that she may be bowing in as a candidate for the presidential nomination of Americans Elect, the independent, non-profit group that is gaining ballot access in all 50 states for a national ticket to be nominated on-line.

The speculation began with Jonathan Chait, a political writer for New York Magazine, who noted that Snowe's exit announcement sounded very much like an Americans Elect announcement.


Wrote Chait, "This sounds exactly like the kind of rhetoric emanating from Americans Elect, the third-party group that believes that both parties should put aside partisanship and come together to enact an ever-so-slightly more conservative version of Barack Obama's agenda. Moderate retiring senators often deliver lofty, vacuous paeans to bipartisanship on their way to a lucrative lobbying career. But Snowe's statement seems unusually specific (`unique opportunities to build support for that change from outside the United States Senate' ) about her intent to do something."

Chait's speculation was picked up and commented on on sites like, The Huffington Post, and ABC News, which reported Elliot Ackerman, the chief operating office of Americans Elect, as acknowledging that Snowe would be an ideal candidate for his organization.

What all this has to do with Buddy Roemer is that the former Louisiana congressman and governor recently quit his quixotic bid for the Republican presidential nomination to announce that he was becoming an independent and seeking the Americans Elect nomination - the first candidate to formally announce he was seeking the AE nod.

All of which would, if Chait is right, makes Snowe a potential rival, or running mate. Americans Elect' s rules require that the presidential nominee choose a vice presidential candidate not of the same party. But now that Roemer has switched from Republican to independent, there is nothing to preclude a Roemer-Snowe ticket, or, for that matter Snowe-Roemer, though that sounds a bit like the brand name of a new competitor to the Ski-Doo.