Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.(Photo: Mandel Ngan, AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Early on, Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu led the charge to delay dramatic increases in the premiums paid by homeowners covered under the federal flood insurance program.
As Landrieu, a lead sponsor of the proposal, held the microphone at one press conference after another on the issue, Rep. Bill Cassidy, the leading Republican running for her seat, stood quietly to the side at one of those press conferences and listened.
That changed Thursday, when Cassidy took the microphone at a press conference to celebrate a vote approving the House version of the flood insurance measure — a version he helped craft.
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With a bill possibly just days away from final enactment — the Senate is expected to vote on the House bill next week — Landrieu and Cassidy are jockeying to claim credit for its success during one of the most competitive Senate races in the country.
"It might have a positive effect on both candidates by raising their favorables,'' said Pearson Cross, head of the political science department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. "This is just one of those issues where it's a Louisiana issue. To veer away from what is in the interest of Louisiana households would just be suicide. And neither one of these experienced politicians is making that mistake.''
Landrieu, serving her third six-year term, may try to capitalize on her seniority to gain an edge in the competition for credit. Cassidy is serving his third two-year term.
"That's what she's trying to sell — her importance and her seniority in the Senate,'' said Bernie Pinsonat, a Louisiana pollster. Unfortunately for her, (Cassidy) is already in Congress... He is actively working to pass it also.''
It might have a positive effect on both candidates by raising their favorables.
Pearson Cross, political science department at the University of Louis...Landrieu has repeatedly talked about the two-year effort to pass the flood insurance legislation, a pressing issue for many Louisiana residents. She led the Senate floor debate on the issue.
Key Democrats, including Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, a co-sponsor of the Senate bill, often praise Landrieu for spearheading the effort to pass the legislation. Even some Republican lawmakers have applauded her efforts. The Senate passed its version of the bill 67-32 on Jan. 30.
"This victory would not have been possible without the hundreds of individuals who shared their stories with me,'' Landrieu said after the vote. "These stories of real, hard-working people struggling to stay in their homes made this issue a national priority. Affordable flood insurance is bigger and more important than politics. It's a pocketbook issue that affects people's everyday lives, and it is my responsibility as their senator to make it right."
Landrieu has claimed credit for getting President Barack Obama to say he would sign flood insurance legislation into law if Congress approves it.
Landrieu has been more visible as a champion of the legislation in the Senate than Cassidy has been in the House. But GOP leaders such as Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia have given Cassidy plenty of kudos for his work on the measure.
"Good policy is good politics,'' Cassidy said last week. "So if it turns out that I'm working for something not just for the folks in all of Louisiana, but across the nation that people can say, 'Wow. The guy is thoughtful. He works hard. He works well with others. He can get something done - well good policy sometimes turns out to be good politics.''
Each candidate has sent out numerous press releases, held press conferences or teleconferences, and appeared in newscasts discussing the flood insurance legislation.
Each version of the bill aimed to provide for some homeowners affected by the rate increases. The Senate bill would have delayed the increases for four years while the Federal Emergency Management Agency studied how to make them more affordable. The House version, approved Tuesday and on track to become law, caps the annual increases at 18 percent.
Cassidy calls the House version "superior."
"Maybe good policy should instruct the voters of Louisiana as to who would be their better senator,'' he said after Thursday's press conference.
Landrieu says the 18-percent cap in the House bill is too high. Her long-term plan, after the bill is signed into law, is to push for changes.
"If I wasn't up for re-election, I would still be working on this,'' she said. "I'm going to continue working on it after I'm re-elected.''
The legislation is opposed by watchdog organization that say it undoes valuable reforms Congress passed in 2012 to bring the National Flood Insurance Program's taxpayer-subsidized premiums more in line with actual flooding risks. The program is $24 billion in debt.
Those groups also say much of the momentum behind the legislation came from the political competition between Landrieu and Cassidy.
"Amusingly to me, both Bill Cassidy in the House and Mary Landrieu in the Senate expressed annoyance when we pointed out the inconvenient truth that Louisiana Senate politics has been driving a great deal of this,'' said Andrew Moylan, a senior fellow at the R Street Institute, a libertarian think tank.
Landrieu called such comments "a trumped-up reason for not addressing a problem that everyone else in America has no problem recognizing needs a solution."
She noted that the legislation is backed by bankers, realtors and home builders.
"Their job isn't to wake up and get me re-elected," she said. "They're not getting me elected or Bill Cassidy elected, they're representing their industries.''
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