He has scheduled a “special press conference” Monday in Monroe to formally announce his decision to run for re-election this fall in the 5thCongressional District.
McAllister said he spent the weekend with his family making sure “they were on board,” and that they are. He said he and they decided to leave it up to voters whether “he stays or goes.”
What does this mean? It means that the 5th District congressional race will likely go to whomever makes it into the runoff with McAllister, unless that happens to be a Democrat.
And it means it’s entirely likely that you’ll find out more about McAllister’s personal life between now and Election Day.
There have been lots of rumors emanating out of DC about the “Kissing Congressman,” even prior to his getting caught on videotape in a passionate embrace with a staffer he’s not married to. Washington, for members of the political class, is a very, very small town – and word gets around.
Now that there is a reason for the dirt to come out, if in fact there is dirt, you can bet it will surface during the campaign.
The question is whether a fresh round of allegations of McAllister’s peccadilloes will wipe him out, or if he has enough name recognition to survive into a runoff.
The problem with the 5th District race is that outside of McAllister, the Republicans have lots of candidates, and some who might become good ones, but nobody who looks like a major player just yet. Monroe businessman Harris Brown, former Grant Parish district attorney Ed Tarpley, Mangham doctor Ralph Abraham, St. Francisville political consultant Mike Smith, West Monroe businessman Zach Dasher (who is Phil Robertson’s cousin) and possibly one or two others could enter the race – including state sen. Elbert Guillory of Opelousas, who appeared likely to get in as of late last week. But as of right now it just looks like an amorphous blob of Republican candidates less well known than McAllister, with the hope that one of them can get enough traction to edge out the Democrat in the race (which appears to be Monroe mayor Jamie Mayo) and then knock McAllister off in the runoff.
All this might change if state Sen. Mike Walsworth of West Monroe were to get into the race, which seems more likely now that Walsworth’s colleague and last year’s LA-5 second-place finisher Neil Riser has decided not to run. Walsworth said last week he’s considering a campaign and he’s being encouraged to get in.
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