I confess it is nice to see the political career of David Vitter – someone we’ve been following closely at TPM for almost a decade – go down in flames tonight. But there’s an additional part of the story, an additional piece of good news. As Catherine Thompson explained here, Vitter devoted the last week of his campaign to demagoguing the Syrian refugee issue in a desperate effort to save himself. He even went beyond the standard scare talk and hyperbole to trying to whip hysteria against a specific Syrian refugee who Vitter falsely claimed had mysteriously disappeared and was now at large in the state. (The man in question had, all through official channels and with appropriate notifications, been relocated to the Washington, DC region where he had relatives.)
As I wrote Friday, the race had become a potential bellwether for Syrian refugee hysteria and politics. Perhaps even the fear of terrorism or hatred for the desperate and forlorn was not enough to overcome the state’s building revulsion for the man-child senator. But if it had, it would have been rightly seen as a harbinger of the power of anti-Middle East refugee politics and a darkening mood entering the 2016 election cycle.
And yet, it didn’t. Not only did Vitter not make a comeback. The final election results (almost a 10 point win) suggest the last minute immigrant-terror bashing had no effect at all.
You might say that Democrats were being a bit paranoid. But even the paranoid can have real enemies. And in the South, in political terms, Democrats very much do. Democrat Jack Conway had a steady lead in the Kentucky governor’s race. Only to see tea party favorite Matt Bevin comeback and win it – perhaps with a late push identifying Conway with President Obama.
We’re still seeing how this all plays out. I don’t mean to tell you that Syrian refugee hysteria politics is nothing. But in this case it wasn’t enough. Indeed, it does not appear to have helped Vitter at all – not even to partially close the gap. And that is worth noting.
