Louisiana Congressman Ralph Abraham, the top polling Republican in the governor’s race, is taking some criticism after a report shows he’s missed 39 percent of U.S. House votes since November.
LSU Political Science Professor Robert Hogan says anytime an elected official takes time away from legislating to campaign, they become vulnerable to a fairly common line of attack.
“It’s something that Governor Edwards, in particular, will be able to say...that, while he's been here doing his job, Abraham is not doing his job in Washington.”
In response, Abraham said “being a Congressman is more than just sitting at a desk voting yes or no. We are daily solving our constituents’ problems.”
Hogan says the attack likely won't have much of an effect, because most of those missed votes, like a recent one on immigration, weren’t even close anyway.
“He can legitimately say that 'my vote wouldn’t have mattered, that the outcome would have been the same whether or not I was there,' so I think it will be easy to assuage the concerns of people who have this.” Hogan says
Abraham is missing from the roll call on 196 of the 509 votes that have been called since November.
Abraham's campaign got some good news this week, as the candidate managed to snag two of the state’s top donors for his gubernatorial effort.
Hogan says that’s a major win for the Congressman.
“That’s going to give a lot of Republicans, who have been worried about his candidacy that’s been lagging in fundraising, more assurance that he is going to be able to pursue a very competitive campaign.”
Those donors are Boysie Bollinger, who ran a shipbuilding firm, and Leon Canizaro, a New Orleans banker.