Congressman Vance McAllister, the Republican from Louisiana’s Fifth District who was caught soul-kissing a staffer on a leaked surveillance video in April, is getting support from his wife in a new video. But polling in the district suggests that marital support may not be enough for a campaign that was severely damaged by the scandal.
McAllister’s campaign also appears to be less well funded than some of his competitors’ efforts, with Abraham and Dasher both enjoying substantial self-funding capacity. The slide in McAllisters’s finances is a “direct result of his little escapade,” Glascock says. “At that point the Republican Party in Washington dropped him and said they weren’t going to raise any money for him. The Republican Party in Louisiana said they weren’t going to raise any money for him. And the Duck boys said they weren’t going to raise any money for him.”
Baton Rouge consultant Roy Fletcher tells the New Orleans Times-Picayune the new ad could be effective if it persuades voters that McAllister’s wife has forgiven him, but he adds, “Getting forgiveness and getting re-elected are two different things.”