Val Senegal has arrived…and she’s ready to debate.

Who is Val Senegal? She’s a Democratic candidate for United State Senate. Get used to hearing her name because you’re likely to hear a lot more from her in the weeks ahead.

The Senegal campaign issued a request last week to Louisiana television stations asking to be included in the upcoming debates. Currently, Democrat Mary Landrieu and Republicans Bill Cassidy and Rob Maness are the only candidates invited to appear.

While we don’t necessarily agree with all of her conclusions, Val raises some interesting questions. Who came up with the idea of having two Republicans and one Democrat on the stage? Wouldn’t two from each party be more appropriate? Will Mary Landrieu support her request for inclusion of at least one African American in a state where one third of the population is black?

You may thinking that Ms. Senegal has very little chance of winning the election, but she has about the same chance as Rob Maness, and he’s been invited.

It will be interesting to see if the Senegal request is granted…and what Mary Landrieu has to say about it. Senator Landrieu may like the current format where Rob Maness and she can spend all of their time beating up on Bill Cassidy…which raises the question once again:  What is Rob Maness thinking, or is he?

Here’s the release from the Senegal campaign:

Senegal Requests Spot in US Senate Debates

BATON ROUGE, LA – Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Val Senegal today called on Louisiana television stations to include her in the upcoming debates featuring candidates for United States Senate. Senegal made formal requests of the stations earlier today.

The citizens of Louisiana deserve to hear from all of the candidates, not just the two or three with the most money,” Senegal said.

In a state where one third of the population is African American, it is also imperative that the forums include at least one African American candidate. A majority of Louisiana’s Democrats are African Americans, so having representation in the debate is very important to us,” she said.

I’m not sure who came up with the idea of having two Republicans onstage with only one Democrat, but this is a very bad idea. A debate between two members of each political party is more reasonable,” Senegal said.

Senegal called on incumbent US Senator Mary Landrieu to support her call for inclusion. We have supported Mary Landrieu for decades. It is time for her to support us,” she said.