Inside Report: Vitter, Jindal Likely Secure
by WILL SENTELL - Advocate (excerpt)

(D)espite all the speculation since then, credible Vitter opponents have failed to step up. Lots of stories have surfaced about politicians in both parties supposedly considering the race. Most of those stories have been followed quickly by disavowals from the politician supposedly anxious to get in.

The latest trial balloon has U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville, running against Vitter next year. Melancon would have to brace for a campaign wherein he would be pegged as a diehard supporter of President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Obama lost to Republican John McCain last year in Louisiana by a margin of 59 percent to 40 percent. Pelosi is a liberal by national standards and ultraliberal by Louisiana standards.

Pearson Cross, chairman of the political science department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, said Vitter “has to be the favorite right now. “His name recognition is 98 percent; he is starting off the campaign with the biggest pot of money. He has won before,” Cross said.