NEW ORLEANS — Talk about Republican Sen. David Vitter’s worst political nightmare — a surprise challenger with all the right conservative credentials and none of the baggage of the incumbent’s prostitution scandal.
Chet Traylor, the first Republican elected to Louisiana’s Supreme Court since Reconstruction, made a last-minute decision to take on Vitter after a fresh scandal for the first-term lawmaker: An aide had remained on Vitter’s payroll after pleading guilty to charges stemming from a knife-wielding incident with an ex-girlfriend.
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The incumbent has responded to Traylor’s entry into the race in much the same way he handled the prostitution scandal, by keeping quiet about it. His campaign declined to comment for this story.
In 2007, Vitter would confess only to a “serious sin” after his phone number turned up among records for a Washington prostitution ring. He tersely denied later accusations that he was a customer of New Orleans prostitutes and again declined to answer questions.
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