An interesting e-mail exchange was passed along to us that unfortunately does not put the question of whether Rob Maness, whose 14 percent of last night’s US Senate vote turned out to be the difference between a Bill Cassidy win Tuesday and a Cassidy win on Dec. 6, will actively help to turn Mary Landrieu’s seat Republican in the runoff.

Maness, in his concession speech Tuesday night, made mention of the importance of beating Landrieu…

We visited all 64 parishes, and as of tonight, our truck hit 84,500 miles.  What did we hear along the way?  Louisiana wants more accountability from their elected officials!  Louisianans deserve Senators who live here among us!  Louisianans know that we don’t work for Washington; Washington works for us.  We know that it’s time for fresh leadership in Washington, and for sure we know that it is high time for MARY LANDRIEU TO GO!

And the math supports that tonight!

And then there was this, from NOLA.com…

Maness said Tuesday night through a spokesman that he would back Cassidy in the runoff, though the candidate himself hasn’t any statements about his plans yet.

But Maness was asked point-blank about his plans by a fellow St. Tammany resident and military veteran yesterday, and the e-mail exchange which resulted didn’t particularly illuminate the third-place finisher’s commitment to back his Republican counterpart. We’re reprinting it at the request of John Wells, who approached Maness to ask about his plans…

On Nov 5, 2014, at 7:21, John Wells wrote:

Now that you have forced a runoff do you plan to endorse Bill Cassidy so that we can get this mess over with?

Commander J. B. Wells U. S. Navy (Retired)
Attorney at Law

Subject: Re: Senate Campaign
From: rlmaness
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2014 08:33:32 -0600
To: johnlawesq

Read the paper.
Colonel Rob Maness

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 5, 2014, at 9:08, John Wells <johnlawesq> wrote:

Not very nice Rob. It is a fair question.

Commander J. B. Wells U. S. Navy (Retired)
Attorney at Law

Subject: Re: Senate Campaign
From: rlmaness
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2014 09:16:56 -0600
To: johnlawesq
I think that was a fair answer John.

Sent from my iPhone
On Nov 5, 2014, at 09:23, John Wells <johnlawesq> wrote:

Not really. there was a statement from one of your aides. I was asking you directly.

You’ve burned a number of bridges here Rob and that includes me. I was trying to start a dialogue.

Although I am no longer with the Alliance for Good Government and will be stepping down as Pres of St Tammany Right to Life in January I still am fairly well known and respected in this Parish. I asked a simple question. I did not expect a smart ass answer but then again maybe I should have expected it.

So if you are not interested in trying to repair breaks then that is fine with me.

Any comments herein are personal in nature and do not reflect the opinions of any organizations I am associated with.

Commander J. B. Wells U. S. Navy (Retired)
Attorney at Law

From: rlmaness
Subject: Re: Senate Campaign
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2014 09:46:53 -0600
To: johnlawesq

Commander Wells,
Lets be clear, I do not give the type of answer your accusation implies below. The answer to question you are asking is simply part of the process, as you well know, and I represent more than 200K Louisiana voters who obviously are looking to the Congressman to earn their vote and support. I will honor them by sticking with the process. The answer in the paper is where the process currently stands and I am not going to make a statement on social media prematurely.
Thanks for your note and please don’t read emotion or sarcasm into any of my emails. I try to just stick to the facts and truth. Take care.
Colonel Rob Maness

Sent from my iPad
On Nov 5, 2014, at 9:50, John Wells johnlawesq wrote:

 

You can call me John. But your e-mail tells me what I want to know.

Now if you will excuse me, I have other business to attend to. Sorry to bother you. Feel free not to call me if you engage in the political process in the future.

Commander J. B. Wells U. S. Navy (Retired)
Attorney at Law

Subject: Re: Senate Campaign
From: rlmaness
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2014 09:56:50 -0600
To: johnlawesq

Commander my answer simply is it what is, you are wrong if read anything into it that is not written there. Take care

RM

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 5, 2014, at 10:00, John Wells wrote:

Rob, unlike you I don’t demand people call me by my title. I only have it in my e-mail address for business purposes.

No further response is required or desired.

Commander J. B. Wells U. S. Navy (Retired)

Attorney at LawSubject: Re: Senate Campaign
From: rlmaness
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2014 10:09:27 -0600
To: johnlawesq

LoL John. Take care.

Sent from my iPhone

From: johnlawesq
To: rlmaness
Subject: RE: Senate Campaign
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2014 10:23:30 -0600

OK you can have the last word.

Commander J. B. Wells U. S. Navy (Retired)
Attorney at Law

Obviously, the fact that the thread got a bit chippy may have had something to do with the lack of clarity involved, and it’s quite possible Maness was tired of getting the question. Which is understandable; you run for office for well over a year and have a disappointing result, and rather than being shown some degree of appreciation for all the time and effort all anybody wants to ask you is whether you’re going to endorse the guy you’ve been running against.

But at this point, the truth is that’s all anybody cares about right now. And Wells is correct that the Maness campaign has burned, unnecessarily, a number of bridges within the Republican ranks in the state. The only way to repair that situation is for him to help Cassidy win.

And since Maness’ endorsement of Cassidy and in fact a few appearances in support of him along with an effort to deliver as many of those 202,000 voters to defeat Landrieu as possible would be decisive in creating a sizable victory on Dec. 6, it’s in Cassidy’s interest to welcome Maness into the fold. Maybe even to discuss future possibilities of support for things Maness might want to do. Deals and arrangements get made all the time, and while Cassidy can point to ample polling which says he’s going to get 80 percent of Maness’ voters even without Maness supporting him – something that would perhaps argue for telling the Colonel “you’ll get nothing and like it” Judge Smails-style – why make enemies?

It would do us all a lot of good if Maness and Cassidy would come to some sort of rapprochement, with whatever accomodations might be made to facilitate it, and create some sense of unity behind the idea of getting rid of Landrieu. If that unity had been present on Tuesday we wouldn’t be looking at another month of TV ads with Landrieu’s and Barack Obama’s pictures on them.