Looking forward to this 2004 US Senate campaign the Louisiana Democrats are running

Shreveport mayor Adrian Perkins qualified last week to run for Senate. Several observers were immediately and simultaneously impressed with his "sterling resume"

In running against Cassidy, @AdrianDPerkins will be first big-name Democrat to get into #lasen race. Other Dem challengers across country have raised big $$ to run against GOP incumbents. We'll see if Perkins can do same. He has sterling resume, but it's safe Repub seat #lagov

— Tyler Bridges (@tegbridges) July 22, 2020

It was immediately predicted that he would "excite" Democrats

I'll be more blunt about the Senate race. @BillCassidy has drawn an opponent that Democrats can take seriously in Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins. West Point/Harvard grad who is young and Black? Tough for him to win, but he'll excite the Dems. #lasen https://t.co/Hiz6affazU

— Julie O'Donoghue (@JSODonoghue) July 22, 2020

Because, apparently, the things that most excite and "compel" Democrats are Ivy League credentials and being a troop.

Shreveport mayor Adrian Perkins--former class president at West Point and student body president at Harvard Law--will challenge U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R). Pretty compelling story. Could be an interesting race if he can raise some money. #lalege #lasen https://t.co/hgKET0rJIS

— Sam Karlin (@samkarlin) July 22, 2020

 

At least that seemed to be the script everyone was reading from.  Uncanny?  Maybe. Maybe not. I mean, they did tell us who emailed it to them.

Perkins picks up two @JohnBelEdwards alumni, Kia Bickham and @micahjcormier, along with a few Gumbo PAC alumni, for his team, per release. #lalege #lasen

— Sam Karlin (@samkarlin) July 22, 2020

 

Can he win?  Well, reading between the lines here, it doesn't seem likely that is even the point.  See, while the Senate very well may be in play this year, the pros who run the Democratic Party juggernaut do not really expect Louisiana to be a part of that.  BUT since there's likely to be a ton of money flowing their way this fall, it's a good idea to throw as many vessels for receiving and then distributing that money down to professional campaign staff into the mix as possible.  And when Democrats need a placeholder-money sponge to fit into a race like that, well, meritocratic-neoliberal-millitary is the type they prefer.

But, hey don't take it from me...

We need a new generation of leadership in Washington. Looking forward to working with @PerkinsforLA. https://t.co/hfCatBCUkE

— Amy McGrath (@AmyMcGrathKY) July 22, 2020

 

It's good to see @PerkinsforLA stepping forward to run for Senate. His perspective as a mayor on the front lines of leadership (plus as a veteran, and one of a new generation of dynamic Black elected leaders) is more timely than ever. https://t.co/y6Ef6Rh1Fm

— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) July 23, 2020

Sounds very exciting and compelling, right?  Can't you just imagine him facing down some Republican nonsense in the Senate right now?  Wouldn't you like to see a guy like that stand up and ask Mitch McConnell or Tom Cotton if they have "no sense of decency sir?"   What if he had been there on the Senate floor during this term? What might that have looked like?

On Aug. 29th, Sens. Chuck Grassley and Diane Feistein received a letter from eight recent or current members of Harvard Law’s Black Law Student Association (BLSA), including Shreveport mayoral candidate Adrian Perkins, in support of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the United States Supreme Court.

The Bayou Brief contacted Perkins, both directly and through his campaign, and, as of the time of publication, has yet to receive a response.

The letter praises Kavanaugh, a staunchly pro-life conservative who is now confronting credible allegations of sexual assault, for meeting with African-American students in March and providing them “his insights and advice” on how to secure a judicial clerkship. “The students who have signed below write to express appreciation for the Judge’s enthusiasm on this issue and hope that his efforts will be taken into consideration,” the letter reads.

Oh dear.

Well, to contextualize this a bit, the young Harvard men are often asked to sign letters like this on behalf of fellow Harvard men seeking advancement in various arenas.  It's a think Harvard men are expected to do for one another.  And at the time of this letter, the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh were not widely known so it's probable that Perkins just signed the thing because that's part of what it means to be in the club of Harvard men. Kavanaugh had shared with them some of his own "insights and advice" on how to get ahead themselves and so they would want to pay it back in whatever way they can.

Does that make signing your name to a letter supporting the installation of a right wing ideologue to the Supreme Court any better?  Probably if you are the sort of Democrat who is "excited" by a resume like Perkins's it does.  Not really sure who else it is supposed to impress, though.

Political independence

Here is Adrian Perkins. A young West Point and  Harvard Law grad on the make.

After graduating from Harvard Law earlier this year, Perkins, 32, returned to his hometown of Shreveport in order to run for mayor as a Democrat.

Only a year ago, he told the publication Harvard Law Today that he intended on pursuing a career in technology and was considering taking a job with the corporate firm Sidley Austin in Los Angeles, where he worked as a summer associate. “If I go to a corporate law firm, I could carve out a specific space for (practicing tech law),” he said.

Go get in on the ground floor in California helping cell companies sell Fitbit data to health insurers or whatever.  Or go back home to Shreveport where your "impressive resume" puts you on the path to being a bigger fish more quickly. Either way there's plenty money to be made. There are so many choices for people who make their way into the club of careerist Ivy grads.  

The one rule, of course, is your first responsibility is always to the club. 

On Aug. 29th, Sens. Chuck Grassley and Diane Feistein received a letter from eight recent or current members of Harvard Law’s Black Law Student Association (BLSA), including Shreveport mayoral candidate Adrian Perkins, in support of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the United States Supreme Court.

The Bayou Brief contacted Perkins, both directly and through his campaign, and, as of the time of publication, has yet to receive a response.

The letter praises Kavanaugh, a staunchly pro-life conservative who is now confronting credible allegations of sexual assault, for meeting with African-American students in March and providing them “his insights and advice” on how to secure a judicial clerkship. “The students who have signed below write to express appreciation for the Judge’s enthusiasm on this issue and hope that his efforts will be taken into consideration,” the letter reads. 

The Bayou Brief  story actually gives Perkins and his classmates a bit of an out here observing in a concluding paragraph that their letter went out before the sexual assault story came out. It even goes a step further suggesting that, in the absence of these allegations, the letter, "may be perceived as a sign of his political independence and willingness to forge meaningful alliances with conservatives." 

So I guess my first question is, how is that better? Or more to the point, in what way does this blind loyalty to the Harvard Law alumni club maintained for the purposes of career advancement demonstrate "political independence"?