Will David "Diapers" Vitter Lose The Gubernatorial Race To A Democrat In One Of The Reddest States In The Country?

Everyone is getting excited about the 2016 elections which are over a year away. But there's a pretty exciting little election coming up in a week. Louisianans will be picking the guy to take over for Governor Bobby Jindal.... whether he makes it into the White House or goes back to performing exorcisms. Louisiana's jungle primary pits three Republicans-- U.S. Senator David Vitter, former Lt. Governor Scott Angelle, and current Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne-- against one Democrat, John Bel Edwards, the Minority Leader of the state House of Representatives. The most recent polling, last week from KPLC, shows "undecided" winning.

• Undecided- 37%
• John Bel Edwards- 24%
• David Vitter- 21%
• Jay Dardenne- 8%
• Scott Angelle 7%

It's not likely anyone will get the 50% to avoid a runoff, so the final decision will be made on November 21 in a general election. Vitter has all the endorsements-- from George H.W. Bush to the impossibly unpopular Jeb Bush, as well as from the Gun Owners of America, Rand Paul, Chris Christie and Lord Boustany. But the same poll showed Edwards beating Vitter in the runoff, 52-33%. A poll last month from WWL-TV showed Edwards winning a runoff with Vitter 45-41% and a PPP survey the same week had Edwards up 50-38% in a runoff against Vitter. PPP Director Tom Jensen concluded that "Vitter has become quite unpopular, with only 34% of voters rating him favorably to 51% with a negative opinion of him" and that he would make the runoff and lose the general. They also found that 28% of Republican voters say right now that they would vote for Edwards before they would vote for Vitter and that his numbers with women are especially toxic. 54% of Louisiana women have a negative opinion of him and Edwards is leading him among women 57-30%. (For comparison's sake, Romney beat Obama in Louisiana 58-41%.).

Last month, The Advocate, the state's #1 newspaper, published a piece explaining why Vitter has fallen so drastically: David Vitter murky past with prostitution focus of campaign behind campaign.

This week, with a month and a half to go before the Oct. 24 primary, two developments dragged the topic out of the margins and back into the public arena.

First, Baton Rouge television reporter Derek Myers was fired Tuesday after he confronted Vitter with questions about the issue. Myers claimed he lost his job because the Vitter campaign threatened to pull its ads from the station. Although the station’s general manager denied the claim, the story spread like wildfire on websites and social media.

Next, a political action committee launched an anti-Vitter ad on television. Exactly who is behind the group and how much money its donors are putting behind the ad is not yet clear, but it was airing statewide as of Friday.

The anti-Vitter faction-- including an entity called Gumbo PAC-- is trying to dredge up and disseminate enough information to keep voters from sending Vitter into the Governor’s Mansion in January. With Vitter holding a huge lead in fundraising and enjoying a large statewide profile, some think a new and sordid disclosure-- or a cleverly packaged attack using existing information-- may be the only thing that will derail him.

It seems to have worked... with more than a little help from ex-Vitter lover Wendy Ellis, AKA Wendy Cortez (the lady in the videos), now terminally ill and hoping to set the record straight. The part of the story that was never reported was that Vitter got her pregnant and when she was 4-months pregnant he asked her to get an abortion and then dumped her when she was 6 months pregnant, after she refused to have an abortion. (She gave the baby up for adoption.) There are 4 more videos here and if this sordid story about a Republican hypocrite interests you at all, they're certainly worth watching. This one below is about the child and the abortion: