Landrieu, Mary Sen
==
rev door etp lobbyist coi
BEAT by bill cassidy 91st gop since 1883) 2014
afp target 2014
Landrieu is a Senior Policy Advisor for Van Ness Feldman, a DC Law Firm.[100] She became a strategic adviser to the Walton Family Foundation in April 2015.[101] Landrieu is also a member of the pro-Israel group American Israel Public Affairs Committee.[102]
In December 2018, Landrieu and a bipartisan group of former U.S. Senators co-authored an opinion piece in The Washington Post urging the Senate to protect the Special Counsel Investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller.[103]
See also
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Here’s how much Democrats get paid to shill for fossil fuels
Two former Democratic lawmakers made six-figure salaries for falsely promoting methane gas as a climate solution, tax documents seen by HEATED show.
ARIELLE SAMUELSON
JAN 18
In January 2022, only a few years after leaving the elected seat she held for six years, former Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota got a new job: convincing climate-concerned liberals to love the fossil fuel industry.
“It’s clear we have an existential threat to the planet,” said Heitkamp, in a December 2022 commercial for the methane gas lobbying group Natural Allies For a Clean Energy Future. “We should be doing everything that we can to help other countries do what we did, which is dramatically reduce our CO2 emissions by using natural gas.”
The ad—titled “Real Talk with Heidi Heitkamp”—was one of a handful of public relations jobs Heitkamp did that year for Natural Allies, some of which she did alongside former Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. Together, the notoriously moderate Democrats wrote a sponsored article in Politico claiming that “natural gas is accelerating our clean-energy future,” and an op-ed in Newsweek declaring that methane gas can “actually achieve our shared global climate goals faster.” Landrieu also did her own “Real Talk” commercial in March 2022.
For these ads and op-eds, Heitkamp was paid $185,266 and Landrieu was paid $210,690 in 2022, according to IRS 990 tax documents obtained by the Energy and Policy Institute and seen by HEATED. The documents show payments made to Heidi Heitkamp Inc. and to Landrieu’s consulting firm VNF Solutions.
A screenshot of Natural Allies’ 990 tax form from FY2022, showing payments to Landrieu’s consulting firm and Heitkamp. They also show $1 million in payments to Mad Global, a public relations firm that specializes in politics and government, and more than $3.5 million to Omnicom Public Relations Group, a global public relations company.
It’s unclear if these positions represented full-time jobs; both Heitkamp and Landrieu were hired as members of Natural Allies’ “Leadership Council” in early 2022. According to a press release about the hires, the Leadership Council seeks “to bring greater awareness to the foundational role natural gas must play in transitioning to a clean energy future.” Neither Heitkamp nor Landrieu responded to HEATED’s request for comment.
Whatever the case, the numbers are a rare glimpse into the lucrative business of greenwashing the fossil fuel industry. Natural Allies is run and funded entirely by fossil fuel companies, including Williams, TC Energy, Kinder Morgan, National Fuel Gas, Southern Company Gas, and Cheniere Energy.
“It's not every day we get to see the price tag of a former U.S. senator’s advocacy,” said Charlie Spatz, a senior researcher at the Energy and Policy Institute.
Spatz said the numbers also highlight one of the reasons it may be so hard to pass truly effective climate policy in Congress.
“It's sending a message to current Senators that maybe you shouldn't be so harsh on the fossil fuel industry, if they're going to take care of you after you finish,” he said.
A six-figure salary to spread climate misinformation
With each passing year, the science on methane gas pollution and climate change becomes more damning. A recently revised analysis from Robert Warren Howarth, a professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell, found that greenhouse gas emissions from liquified methane gas “are larger than those from domestically produced coal, ranging from 18% to 185% greater for the average cruise distance of an [liquified methane gas] tanker.”
At the same time, with each passing year, more and more former Democratic lawmakers are lining up to tout methane gas as “climate-friendly” in exchange for a paycheck from Natural Allies, which is currently running a seven-figure campaign to target young, liberal, and Black and Latino voters “as effectively as we have messaged to the right.”
In addition to Heitkamp and Landrieu, former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, former Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, and former Florida Congressman Kendrick Meek all accepted positions with Natural Allies in 2023.
Those former lawmakers’ salaries were not disclosed on Natural Allies’s 2022 tax forms, as they were not yet hired by the organization. And it’s unclear if they will be disclosed on future forms, as the IRS only requires that non-profits disclose the five contractors with the highest salaries over $100,000.
However much they are making, they are spreading messages about methane gas that climate scientists have roundly decried as misleading.
“Their claims are all either extremely vague or disproved with middle-school-level science,” said Kate Marvel, a climate scientist at Project Drawdown, who previously worked at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
“Using natural gas warms the climate. Period, full stop,” said Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University. “There is no world in which natural gas is a long-term ‘solution’ to the climate problem.”
Natural Allies cites multiple “independent studies” to support its claim that methane gas is the best way to solve the climate crisis. But, as we reported last year, all of those studies were funded at least in part by fossil fuel interests, and none were published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Actual peer-reviewed science with no industry backing has shown the opposite of what Natural Allies claims. According to a 2021 systematic review of the scientific literature on methane gas, increasing investments in the fossil fuel carries a long-term risk of delaying the clean energy transition and worsening the climate crisis. That’s because investing in further natural gas development “could lock-out emerging renewable technologies for extended periods.”
Building new gas pipelines, LNG terminals, and gas-fired power plants “pose a particularly great risk for carbon lock-ins,” scientists wrote this year in the journal Nature Energy.
What Natural Allies is doing is called “solutions denial,” a common form of climate misinformation, as we previously reported:
“It's an absolute tried-and-tested argument within the disinformation playbook to constantly create more interim milestones before we achieve what a real necessary transition looks like,” said [Jennie] King, who works at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. “So taxpayer money [goes] into creating new dependencies on [fossil fuels], which ultimately in the long term, make it much harder for us to achieve an actual clean energy transition.”
But former Democratic lawmakers and mainstream media are still more than willing to spread the misinformation coming from Natural Allies, so long as Natural Allies is willing to pay for it. Since 2020, Natural Allies has spent $10 million on a national PR campaign targeting Democratic voters, including more than $4 million to place ads in E&E News and Politico newsletters, Axios, Newsweek, Vox, the Wall Street Journal, and across cable news stations, according to reporting from the Guardian and Floodlight.
These campaigns are effective, in part, because it is very difficult to tell who is behind them. Readers of these news outlets may not recognize, as we uncovered last year, that Natural Allies’ ads are a form of fossil fuel industry climate disinformation. And that is the real price of Heitkamp and Landrieu’s sell out: a deception not measured in dollars, but in the degrees threatening our livable climate.
Further reading
Politico and Axios defend running misleading natural gas ads. HEATED, February 2023.
Key quote: “It is not up to us to decide what is factually accurate or what is not factually accurate,” Politico executive vice president Cally Stolbach Baute told HEATED. “We frankly respect our readers enough to be fully transparent with them on our advertising and encourage them to evaluate our journalism on its merit and its accuracy.”
How the gas industry aims to rebrand as ‘clean’ energy to appeal to Black and Latino voters. Floodlight and The Guardian, June 2022.
Key quote: “Success for the natural gas industry will be rooted in whether we can message to the left and the Democratic base of Black and Latino and age 18-34 voters as effectively as we have messaged to the right,” read one early strategy document.
The methane gas industry is trying to codify misinformation into law. HEATED, May 2023.
Key quote: “The phenomenon started in Europe [in 2022], when the European Parliament voted to label certain uses of natural gas as “green.” That meant billions of dollars that were intended to fund climate-friendly projects could legally be used for methane power plants and terminals. Now, industry climate misinformation has also started making its way into U.S. state law—albeit in slightly different ways.”
===Our “Power Behind the Pipelines” work got off to a fast start in 2018 with two new reports.
Our January report on the Bayou Bridge pipeline revealed that former Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu had been lobbying for the pipeline at the same time as she was registered to advocate on behalf of a state regulatory body that had yet to sign off on the project. We also highlighted some of controversial issues surrounding the big bank financing of the pipeline. The report was widely covered in the *Advocate*, *International Business Times*, and other media.
We published two February reports (here and here) that showed how oil and gas interests - specifically those around the proposed 120-mile fracked gas PennEast pipeline - are positioning themselves to try to sway New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy’s transition. While Murphy has indicated that he wants to take on the fossil fuel industry, we revealed that seven pipeline lobbyists, along with attorneys and top executives tied to PennEast, have appointments in his transition, among other industry ties. The reports were covered in *ThinkProgress*, Alternet, TruthOut, and other media.
==
==
https://www.alternet.org/environment/former-senator-exposed-major-conflict-interest-over-pipeline-approval
From Dakota Access to Keystone to Atlantic Coast, there has been no shortage of controversies over major proposed oil and gas pipelines in recent years. We can add the Bayou Bridge Pipeline to this list.
Energy Transfer Partners and Phillips 66’s Bayou Bridge Pipeline is a proposed connection to ETP’s Bakken Pipeline network that will ship between 280,000 and 480,000 barrels of crude oil per day through southern Louisiana’s bayous and wetlands to petroleum refineries in Lake Charles.
The pipeline is facing committed resistance, both from environmental activists concerned about climate change and the impact of inevitable pipeline leaks and accidents on the environmentally sensitive Atchafalaya Basin,as well as from the communities of people whose homes and ways of life are threatened by the project.
On the other side are the oil and gas corporations that stand to profit from building the pipeline, the banks seeking interest payments on loans to oil and gas companies, and the politicians and academics dependent on oil and gas industry largesse for their careers.
PAI’s latest report, "The Power Behind the Pipelines: Bayou Bridge Pipeline," examines the interests pushing Bayou Bridge despite the substantial public opposition.
Former Senator Mary Landrieu working for ETP and key environmental regulator
The most shocking find in our investigation was that Mary Landrieu, the former Democratic senator from Louisiana, has been working as a consultant for Energy Transfer Partners touting the pipeline in public testimony and in print media at the same time as she is registered as a lobbyist for the LouisianaCoastal Protection and Restoration Authority,which needed to approve Bayou Bridge before the project could move forward.
It is not entirely clear whether Landrieu is being paid by Energy Transfer Partners, and if so, how much. She is not registered to lobby on behalf of ETP at the state or federal level, however, the former senator identified herself as a consultant for the firm in an article endorsing the pipeline and reportedly told protesters that “she would support the project even if she wasn’t working for the company.”
At the same time, Landrieu is registered to represent the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, one of the final remaining regulatory agencies to approve of Bayou Bridge, to the federal government.
These dual roles—working both for an environmental regulator and an energy company with a project that must be approved by the regulator—pose an extraordinary conflict of interest.
Landrieu is a powerful politician who served in the US Senate for 18 years and whose family is heavily involved in Louisiana politics. During her time there, she received more than $1.7 million from the oil and gas industry, including $41,400 from Energy Transfer Partners. Her formidable connections and conflicting positions raise questions of whether she may be influencing CPRA on behalf of ETP.
map]
Our other most notable finding was that two banks—US Bank and DNB Capital—that had pledged they would stop financing ETP’s Dakota Access Pipeline after public pressure on them to do so were lending to the companies behind Bayou Bridge.
In the case of US Bank, after Food & Water Watch’s Hugh MacMillan revealed the banks financing Dakota Access spurred a pressure campaign that included a banner drop at a Minnesota Vikings game at US Bank Stadium, the bank announced to great accolades that it would cease “project financing for the construction of oil or natural gas pipelines.”
Crucially, US Bank did not pledge to stop lending to the companies building pipelines but merely pledged to stop financing individual projects. This distinction is academic, however, since corporate debt is, in fact, financing pipeline construction. In its most recent annual report, Energy Transfer Equity, ETP’s parent company, said that ETP’s credit facility would provide “temporary financing for growth projects,” which includes Bayou Bridge.
In December 2017, eight months after their announcement US Bank joined other banks in two new agreements to lend up to $5 billion to Energy Transfer Partners, the main company behind Dakota Access and the majority owner of Bayou Bridge. US Bank is also party to credit agreements to lend up to $5.75 billion to Phillips 66.
DNB Capital, a Norwegian bank which had been a member of credit agreements with Energy Transfer Equity and both Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics Partners before their merger, announced that it would sell off its loans to Energy Transfer Partners “to signal how important it is that the affected indigenous population is involved and that their opinions are heard in these types of projects.”
However, DNB Capital remains party to credit agreements with Phillips 66, which is a 25 percent owner of Dakota Access and a 40 owner of Bayou Bridge.
The banks’ announcements about pulling financing from Dakota Access show that public pressure campaigns like Mazaska Talks have had an impact, however, the fact they are still finding ways to finance pipeline construction that threatens the environment and the sovereignty of indigenous people shows that the promise of oil profits still has major allure.
map of banks
...
For more information on the power behind Bayou Bridge Pipeline—including other politicians backing the pipeline, the major investors like Blackstone and Berkshire Hathaway invested in the companies behind it, and the significant conflicts of interest at Louisiana State University which published a report touting the pipeline—see the full report, available at the Public Accountability Initiative website.
Rob Galbraith is a senior researcher at the Public Accountability Initiative/LittleSis.org. His research focuses on the influence of the oil and gas and high finance industries on pubic policy. He is a board member of Farmer Pirates, a cooperative of urban farms in Buffalo, and co-chair of the Buffalo chapter of Democratic Socialists of America.
==
By a straight party-line vote of 54-42, the U.S. Senate failed to pass a constitutional amendment that would have overruled the awful Citizens Uniteddecision.
But our work had an impact. All five Senate Democrats whose support was unknown—Mary Landrieu, Mary Pryor, Joe Donnelly, Tim Kaine & Mark Warner—ended up voting “yes.”
==
2014 runnoff w/ house xl sponsor
Landrieu called for the vote less than 24 hours after President Obama announced a historic agreement with China to limit carbon emissions, making her formal request on the Senate floor yesterday evening. She claimed that the recent election results showed Americans wanted more bipartisan action. She told the Senate, “The public has clearly spoken. The bill needs to be approved today. Not in January, not in February, not in March.”
With several other Democrats on her side, including West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, South Dakota’s Heidi Heitcamp and Montana’s Jon Tester, there’s a possibility it could clear the 60-vote bar in the Senate and head for President Obama’s desk next week.
==
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=
==
BP big donor
==
The barrage of lawsuits against the EPA comes as an increasing number of lawmakers in Congress from both parties are moving to attempt to block the agency from cracking down on greenhouse gas emissions. Leading the charge is Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who, with the help of industry lobbyists, has filed a resolution of disapproval that, if signed into law, would nullify the endangerment finding.This rarely used parliamentary maneuver already has 40 cosponsors, including Democratic Sens. Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), Ben Nelson (Neb.), and Mary Landrieu (La.). A bipartisan trio of representatives introduced the same measure in the House in late February.
==
Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu
Sen. Mary Landrieu represents a state, Louisiana, that is home to two of the five largest oil refineries in the country. ExxonMobil's Baton Rouge refinery processes more than half a million barrels of oil per day. Landrieu's single largest campaign contributor is Entergy corporation, a large producer and distributor of electricity. The CEO of Entergy once said that the only viable solution to global warming is to burn more coal.
In 2008, Landrieu was added to the League of Conservation Voters "Dirty Dozen" list, an honor reserved for only the most environmentally backward legislator. Her lifetime LCV score of 43 percent is the culmination of a career spent voting for fossil fuel industry tax breaks and against measures to curb global warming-causing pollution. She's on record urging President Obama to stop making the fight against global warming a focus of the Democratic party.
LANDRIEU, Mary
RS: Landrieu (Louisiana) Accepted almost $1 million from Big Oil; prevented $13 billion in industry tax breaks from being diverted to clean energy. Opposed a temporary halt to offshore drilling, even after the BP spill. Key quote: "If I were one of them," she said, defending beleaguered oil executives, "I'd be tempted to just shut off the spigots and go elsewhere."
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-enablers-democrats-on-board-with-the-party-of-the-rich-20111109#ixzz1hgOQQ8cV
okeefe tried to catch her cutting a deal w/ BO on Rx?
In 51-47 Vote, Senate Republicans Protect Big Oil Subsidies As Gasoline Profits Soar |By a nearly party-line vote of 51-47, the U.S. Senate failed to get the 60 votes needed to eliminate $24 billion in taxpayer subsidies for the five richest oil companies. The Republicans filibustered legislation by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) which would have cut the subsidies to pay for investment in wind power and energy efficiency. Democrats who joined the Republicans included Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mark Begich (D-AK), and Jim Webb (D-VA). Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) broke ranks and voted to cut the tax breaks.
Abstract:
This article profiles U.S. Senator
from Louisiana Mary Landrieu as part of a
series of articles on notable individuals
who have expressed their disbelief in
global warming, with topics discussed
including her support of oil drilling,
her efforts to hinder Senate legislation
instating carbon pollution caps, and
funding she received from petroleum
lobbyists in 2008.
Mary Landrieu
Environmental record
For more information on environmental legislation, see the Energy and Environment Policy Portal
Energy policy and companies
In 2006, Landrieu and Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) sponsored the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act. The legislation planned to open 8.3 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico and share 37.5 percent of the new royalty revenues, dedicated to coastal protection, with Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama. The legislation was passed and signed by President George W. Bush.
Main article: U.S. federal oil and gas royalties
Oil
Mary Landrieu has voted in favor of big oil companies on 67% of important oil-related from 2005-2007, according to Oil Change International. These bills include Iraq war funding, climate change studies, clean energy, and emissions.[1] See below for oil money in politics.
Earmarks
Landrieu posts the earmarks she has secured for Louisiana on her official website, including a breakdown by county. [2]
Gang of 14
On May 23, 2005, Landrieu was among the Gang of 14, the group of moderate senators who forged a compromise on the use of the judicial filibuster, thus blocking the Republican leadership's attempt to implement the so-called nuclear option over the organized filibustering by Senate Democrats of judicial nominees in the US Senate. Under the agreement, the Democrats would retain the power to filibuster a Bush judicial nominee only in an "extraordinary circumstance", and the three most conservative Bush appellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William H. Pryor, Jr.) would receive a vote by the full Senate.
Common Ground Coalition brought on think tank's support
The Common Ground Coalition, founded to help form bipartisan legislation and led by Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), sought the help of the Bipartisan Policy Center, an off-the-Hill think tank, to suggest paths to compromise on contentious bills.[3]
During a time where both parties were strongly divided over Iraq war policy and Republican filibustering, the Common Ground Coalition echoed the work of the Gang of 14, although the Gang was formed to create compromise over the filibustering of judicial nominees specifically, and the Coalition was created to make bipartisan compromises on a range of issues.[4]
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina destroyed Sen. Landrieu's lakeside New Orleans home. The senator has become a national spokeswoman for victims of the hurricane and has complained of "the staggering incompetence of the national government." In an interview with Chris Wallace, Landrieu called the evacuation of New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina "the best evacuation."[3]
Shortly after the aftermath of the hurricane, Landrieu was involved in a testy exchange with Anderson Cooper of CNN in which she praised President Bush and the Senate for responding to Katrina and appropriating money for the effort. To which Cooper responded: "Excuse me, Senator, I'm sorry for interrupting. I haven't heard that, because, for the last four days, I've been seeing dead bodies in the streets here in Mississippi. And to listen to politicians thanking each other and complimenting each other, you know, I got to tell you, there are a lot of people here who are very upset, and very angry, and very frustrated." [4] After this exchange, Landrieu began to criticize President Bush very harshly for his response to Katrina in subsequent interviews.
CREW filed complaint
On January 8, 2008 Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington asked the Justice Department and Senate Ethics Committee to investigate whether Landrieu violated federal bribery laws in getting a $2 million earmark for a reading program whose executives and lobbyists donated to her 2002 re-election campaign. Landrieu inserted the earmark in a $7.1 billion spending bill for the District of Columbia and it provided $2 million for use of Voyager Expanded Learning in kindergarten and first-grade classes in the D.C. school district. Voyager was a company founded by Randy Best, a Dallas merchant banker and top Republican donor.[5][6][7]
On October 19, 2001, Best held a fundraiser for Landrieu. On or about November 2, Landrieu received $30,000 from Best, company employees, and their relatives. The Louisiana senator was the ranking Democrat and chairwoman of the Appropriations subcommittee responsible for D.C. at the time. She made the request for Senate financing on November 6, four days after receiving the campaign contributions.[8]
Landrieu spokesman Adam Sharp said the senator had been working on getting the funding for months before the vote and that they were made at the request of Paul Vance, Washington's then-superintendent of schools. Money for the program was included in a version of the D.C. spending bill reported out of committee on October 15, 2001. In response to the charges, Landrieu's office released three letter on January 8 intended to show that Voyager was a highly touted and sought-after reading program. One letter dated April 2001 was sent from D.C. school officials, urging the subcommittee to expand the use of Voyager because it had been succesful in summer and extended-day classes.[9]
Bio
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Mary Landrieu | Mary Landrieu |
|---|---|
from Louisiana | from Louisiana |
| Incumbent | Incumbent |
Assumed office January 3, 1997 Serving with David Vitter | Assumed office January 3, 1997 Serving with David Vitter |
| Preceded by | J. Bennett Johnston |
Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship | Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship |
| Incumbent | Incumbent |
Assumed office January 3, 2009 | Assumed office January 3, 2009 |
| Preceded by | John Kerry |
In office 1988–1996 | In office 1988–1996 |
| Governor | |
| Preceded by | Mary Evelyn Parker |
| Succeeded by | Ken Duncan |
| Born | November 23, 1955 (1955-11-23) (age 54) |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Frank Snellings |
| Children | Connor Snellings Mary Shannon Snellings |
| Residence | New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Alma mater | Louisiana State University (B.A.) |
| Occupation | real estate agent |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Signature |  |
| Website | landrieu.senate.gov |
Mary Loretta Landrieu (pronounced /ˈlændruː/, *LAN-droo*;[1] born November 23, 1955) is the senior United States Senator from the State of Louisiana, and is the second woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Louisiana. Landrieu is the daughter of former New Orleans mayor and Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, Moon Landrieu and the sister of the current Mayor of New Orleans and former Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana Mitch Landrieu. By national standards, Landrieu is among the most conservative Democrats in the U.S. Senate,[2] and is a member of the New Democrat Coalition.
Contents[hide] |
[edit] Personal life
Landrieu was born in Arlington, Virginia to Verna Satterlee and former New Orleans mayor Moon Landrieu,[3] and raised in New Orleans. She was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended Ursuline Academy of New Orleans. She graduated from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge in 1977 where she was a member of Delta Gamma sorority. Before entering politics, she worked as a real estate agent. She was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1980 to 1988, representing a New Orleans-based district. She then served as Louisiana state treasurer from 1988–1996, having succeeded the veteran officeholder, Mary Evelyn Parker. In the 1987 primary for treasurer, she defeated two legislative colleagues, Kevin P. Reilly, Sr., chief executive officer at the time of Lamar Advertising Company in Baton Rouge, and Claude "Buddy" Leach, a former U.S. representative and the current chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party. Landrieu gave up the treasurer's office to run for governor of Louisiana in 1995, but finished third in the state's jungle primary (which at that time was considered the actual election in Louisiana). The eventual winner was Democrat-turned-Republican Murphy J. "Mike" Foster, Jr.
Landrieu and her husband, attorney Frank Snellings (born 1949), who grew up in Monroe, have two children, Connor and Mary Shannon. Her son Connor is currently an enrolled student at Tulane University in New Orleans.
[edit] U.S. Senate
Landrieu speaks during the second day of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.
[edit] Elections
Landrieu was elected in 1996 to the U.S. Senate seat previously held by John Bennett Johnston, Jr. of Shreveport after winning a close and controversial runoff election, called the general election in Louisiana, against Louisiana State Representative Woody Jenkins of Baton Rouge.
Landrieu narrowly won re-election in the 2002 mid-term election. She defeated Suzanne Haik Terrell of New Orleans. Some experts and pundits had considered Landrieu as a possible running mate for presidential candidate John Kerry in the 2004 election before Kerry's selection of then- Senator John Edwards of North Carolina. With the departure of John Breaux from the Senate in December 2004, his seat being taken by Republican David Vitter, Landrieu became Louisiana's senior senator.
She has made securing funding for Louisiana projects one of her top priorities as a US Senator. She has also held high profile hearings on the mistakes of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. In a break from her previous two close elections, she won a relatively comfortable 52% to 46% re-election to a third term on November 4, 2008, in a race against her challenger, Louisiana State Treasurer John Neely Kennedy, a former Democrat who switched to the Republican Party in 2007.[4]
On December 15, 2008, it was announced that Landrieu would become Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship for the 111th Congress when former Chairman John Kerry left to lead the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, previously headed by Vice President-elect Joe Biden.[5]
In September 2010 Landrieu she would hold up OMB director Jacob Lew’s confirmation until the administration lifts or eases a federal freeze on deepwater oil-and-gas drilling. The slowdown of Lew’s nomination comes despite broad bipartisan support for installing him at OMB. The Senate Budget Committee recommended that Lew be confirmed on a 22-1 vote.[6]
[edit] Committees
- Committee on Appropriations
- Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
- Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government
- Subcommittee on Homeland Security
- Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
- Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans' Affairs, and Related Agencies
- Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
- Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship (Chairwoman)
Source: 2009 Congressional Record, Vol. 155, Page S729
[edit] Positions
Landrieu, senior United States Senator from Louisiana
Landrieu supports eliminating the estate tax permanently, and voted for the tax cut passed in 2001. On November 17, 2005, she was one of only four Democrats to vote against repealing the portions of the tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003 that more Democrats have charged unfairly benefit the wealthy. She voted for the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 and the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. In 2004, Landrieu was one of only six Democrats to vote against renewing the ban on semi-automatic firearms. She has also been one of the few Democrats to support drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Landrieu voted for the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts in 2005, but in 2006, she opposed Samuel Alito, though she did vote in favor of cloture to send the nomination to an up-or-down vote.
Subsequent to the 2006 midterm election, in which the Democratic Party gained control of both houses of Congress, Landrieu announced (along with Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine) the formation of the "Common Ground Coalition", a group of moderate senators of both parties, with the goal of finding bipartisan consensus on legislative matters.[5]
[edit] Health care
Landrieu was opposed to the public health insurance option in the America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009[7] (HR 3200) until the bill was rewritten to send a $300,000,000 payment to Medicaid for her home state.[8] When two pages were added to the bill to place $300 million in Louisiana's Medicaid system, she changed her web page in order to reflect her support of the program.[9] Conservative figures referred to the deal as the "Louisiana Purchase".[10] As a result, prominent conservative figures Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh called her a "high-priced prostitute".[11]
On November 21, 2009, Landrieu voted with fifty-nine other Senators to bring the health care bill up for debate. On December 8, 2009, she voted against the Nelson-Hatch-Casey amendment which proposed to ban federal funding for private plans that covered elective abortions but allowed individuals to purchase separate individual riders that would cover abortions.[10]
Prior to a concession of $300 million being added to the bill, Landrieu responded to a question on popular support of the public option, and asserted that the option has popular support because “when people hear ‘public option’ they hear ‘free health care.’ Everybody wants free health care. Everybody wants health care they don’t have to pay for.”[12][13]
After Senator Harry Reid added the concession to the bill which sent $300,000,000 to Medicaid recipients in Louisiana, she described the bill as 'imperfect, but taking many steps to improve our broken health care system.'
[edit] Hurricane Katrina
Sen. Landrieu (center) joins Women of the Storm from the Gulf Coast
Hurricane Katrina destroyed Landrieu's lakeside New Orleans home. The senator has become a national spokeswoman for victims of the hurricane, and has complained of "the staggering incompetence of the national government."[14]
In the weeks following Katrina, Landrieu and fellow Senator David Vitter co-sponsored the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief and Economic Recovery Act of 2005 (S.1765),[15] a 440-page aid package worth an estimated $250 billion[16][17] (roughly $550,000 per resident) in order to rebuild New Orleans, a city of 453,726 pre-Katrina.[18] The bill was read twice by Congress, then referred to the United States Senate Committee on Finance.[19]
[edit] Protect America Act
On August 3, 2007, Landrieu broke ranks with Democrats when she and Louisiana Rep. Charlie Melancon sided with Republicans and the Bush Administration in voting for the Protect America Act, an amendment to the USA Patriot Act further expanding wiretap powers.[20]
[edit] Voyager reading program
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Landrieu earmarked $2 million for a reading program whose founder supported her campaign for reelection. Randy Best, founder of the Voyager Expanded Learning literacy program, had hosted a fundraising event that raised $30,000 for Landrieu's reelection campaign days before she proposed his reading program in the earmark. Best and his company's top associates were among those who donated to Landrieu's campaign.[21] This earned her a spot on the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington advocacy group's "Top 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress" report.[22]
In 2007, Landrieu was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.[23]
[edit] Entry of Senate Office Under False Pretenses
On January 25, 2010, four conservative activists, including Stan Dai, Joseph Basel, both 24, Robert Flanagan, son of Bill Flanagan, acting U.S. Attorney, and conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe, were arrested for their role in a plot to damage the phone system of Landrieu's Louisiana offices.[24] Two of the alleged co-conspirators posed as telephone repair technicians, in order to gain access to the telephone system for the office. According to an affidavit filed on behalf of Special Agent Stephen Rayes, O'Keefe admitted to "recording" the interactions with the staff with his cell phone and aiding in the "planning, coordination, and preparation of the operation." [25] On March 27, 2010, the four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses, a misdemeanor charge.[26] On May 26, 2010 all four entered guilty pleas before Magistrate Daniel Knowles III in a New Orleans federal court. Three of the four received two years probation, 75 hours of community service and $1,500 fines, while James O'Keefe received a harsher sentence of three years probation, 100 hours of community service and a $1,500 fine.[27]
[edit] Election history
U.S Senate resolution apologizing for its failure to pass anti-lynching legislation
In response to the 4700 people lynched by mobs between 1882 and 1968 the U.S Senate in 2005 overwhelmingly passed a bi-partisan resolution apologizing for its historic failure to pass anti-lynching legislation (Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill), in the form of a non-binding resolution sponsored by two southern senators, Democrat Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Republican George Allen of Virginia. In response to this apology Project 21 issued this statement which drew criticism because it appeared to out of touch with feelings of a large segment of the of the African American community who believe it's never too late to make amends and the apology was a step in the right direction:
"I am all for the gracious acceptance of an apology that is due, or for apologizing when I am wrong. But just like giving credit where it is due, an apology only carries weight when it has meaning. And, in the case of the recent apology by Senator Mary Landrieu [D-LA] and her regretful cohorts on Capitol Hill, this apology doesn't amount to a hill of beans - at least not today.”
"The lynchings of the past, while a sad place in history to recount, is exactly that - history. The best way to avenge this shameful history and make it relevant to us today is not to wallow in the apologies and regrets offered by senators who couldn't be in any way responsible for what occurred, but to supply our own closure by forgiving those who trespassed against us and moving on.
http://encycl.opentopia.com/term/Project_21
| 1 | Buzbee Law Firm | $57,600 | $57,600 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Patton Boggs LLP |  |  |  | $49,400 | $39,400 | $10,000 | $10,000 | $10,000 | $10,000 | $10,000 |
| 3 | Entergy Corp |  |  | $42,559 | $41,950 | $609 | $609 | $609 | $609 | $609 | |
| 4 | Acadian Ambulance Service | $40,200 | $23,200 | $17,000 | $17,000 | $17,000 | $17,000 | $17,000 | |||
| 5 | JPMorgan Chase & Co |  |  | $38,799 | $28,800 | $9,999 | $9,999 | $9,999 | $9,999 | $9,999 | |
| 6 | Edison Chouest Offshore |  |  | $32,400 | $32,400 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | |
| 7 | Adams & Reese |  |  | $29,043 | $15,250 | $13,793 | $13,793 | $13,793 | $13,793 | $13,793 | |
| 8 | Marathon Oil |  |  | $28,950 | $18,950 | $10,000 | $10,000 | $10,000 | $10,000 | $10,000 | |
| 9 | Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold |  |  | $27,900 | $21,900 | $6,000 | $6,000 | $6,000 | $6,000 | $6,000 | |
| 10 | Jones, Walker et al |  | $27,063 | $19,800 | $7,263 | $7,263 | $7,263 | $7,263 | $7,263 | $7,263 | |
| 11 | Northrop Grumman |  |  | $25,800 | $12,800 | $13,000 | $13,000 | $13,000 | $13,000 | $13,000 | |
| 12 | Goldman Sachs |  |  | $25,700 | $11,700 | $14,000 | $14,000 | $14,000 | $14,000 | $14,000 | |
| 13 | Herman, Herman et al | $24,366 | $24,366 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | |||
| 14 | DCI Group |  |  |  |  |  | $20,000 | $11,500 | $8,500 | ||
| 19 | Tulane University | Tulane University | Tulane University | Tulane University | Tulane University | Tulane University | Tulane University | Tulane University | Tulane University | Tulane University | Tulane University |