Former US Senator Mary Landrieu Works for the Walton Foundation
In December 2014, “the last Deep South Democrat in the US Senate,” Senator Mary Landrieu, lost a runoff election to Republican challenger, Bill Cassidy. It was the first time in 138 years that Louisiana did not have a Democrat in the US Senate.
Landrieu had held the Senate seat for 18 years and was particularly influential over the oil and gas industry in her role as chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. However, Landrieu had “become the Beltway”; she no longer kept a residence in Louisiana and and used her parents’ residence to qualify for her latest Louisiana run. It turns out her primary residence is in Washington, DC.
Moreover, from her almost-two-decade Beltway vantage point, Landrieu had become a powerful promoter of charter schools and the test-score-based reform. As National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) CEO Nina Rees wrote in the following excerpt regarding Landrieu’s December 2014 Senate loss:
“A Real Loss for Charter Schools” (Originally entitled, “Sen. Mary Landrieu’s Loss: A Real Blow for Charter Schools”)The recent defeat of Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu by Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy means the Senate is losing one of its strongest supporters of education reform, and of charter schools in particular.Soon after entering the Senate in 1997, Landrieu joined with Democratic colleagues such as Joseph Lieberman, Evan Bayh and John Breaux to reimagine the federal role in education. Their fundamental objective was granting states more freedom and flexibility in exchange for results, a concept that led to the bipartisan passage of what is now known as the No Child Left Behind Act. Landrieu also seized the mantle of public charter schools like noFormer US Senator Mary Landrieu Works for the Walton Foundation | deutsch29:
