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Louisiana: Jindal Increasing Help He’s Giving Kennedy

After previously working more behind the scenes on such crucial campaign essentials as fundraising, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) is out in front of the Senate race in the Bayou State this week, appearing in a new ad for state Treasurer John Kennedy (R).

Kennedy, who is running on a change message, is facing two-term Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) in the one Senate race this cycle that offers the GOP a pickup opportunity.

Jindal, a wildly popular figure in state politics, says in his new ad that after his election last year, “we made a fresh start in Louisiana. We need a fresh start in Washington, too. … John Kennedy in Washington, now that’s the change we need.”

Then, in a twist on the usual tag line, Kennedy says he approves Jindal’s message because “if you want to change the Senate, you’ve got to change the Senator.”

Despite Jindal’s late ad, Democrats are feeling increasingly confident about Landrieu’s chances, especially after the national GOP decided to pull crucial advertising dollars out of the state last week only to reverse that decision just a few days later. Landrieu’s camp has touted the endorsements of several local GOP officials in key Republican strongholds as one reason why the Senator will be elected to a third term.

This cycle, Democrats have been working relentlessly to paint Kennedy as a politician who changes his views based on the prevailing political sentiment. They have based those attacks on the fact that Kennedy is a former Democrat who switched parties in 2007 before winning re-election to a third term as state treasurer. That move was widely viewed as a way of setting up his current Senate bid.

On Tuesday, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman Matthew Miller kept up the “flip-flopper” line of attack in response to Jindal appearing in Kennedy’s new ad.

“It must’ve been confusing for John Kennedy trying to figure out which political figure he wanted to put in his ad since he changes parties and positions more often than the NRSC changes its mind about backing his campaign,” Miller said.

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