Tuesday, the news came out: Rep. Bill Cassidy (R, LA) has hired Timmy Teepell for his 2012 re-election campaign.  If you’re wondering why I’m telling you this, this is why: Cassidy is a two-term Congressman who won almost 2/3rds of the vote in the last election (and did not get hurt by this round of redistricting) and Teepell is the guy behind Bobby Jindal’s 2011 re-election… well, ‘campaign’ is not exactly the right word.  ‘Kinetic strike from orbit‘ would be a good deal more accurate.  In other words, Teepell is not exactly needed for Cassidy’s 2012 race.

One of my colleagues – somebody who is much more knowledgeable about Louisiana politics than I am – concludes from all of this that this means that Gov. Bobby Jindal will not be running for the 2014 Senate seat against embattled incumbent Mary Landrieu, and that Rep. Cassidy will.  Hard to argue with the logic; snapping up Teepell early and giving him a chance to get used to Cassidy’s existing campaign team in what should be a pretty easy election campaign sounds like a good idea.  And it’s certainly true that Landrieu’s Senate seat – one of the last remaining bastions of Democratic power in Louisiana – is a glittering prize.  But it does leave one question: if Bobby Jindal doesn’t want to go from Governor to Senator, then where does he want to go?

Because let’s not pretend: Bobby Jindal’s a good guy and a good governor, but he’s also a politician… which means that he’s ambitious.

Moe Lane (crosspost)