METAIRIE, Louisiana (April 30) -- Louisiana polls will open Saturday to fill the congressional seat of former speaker-to-be Bob Livingston. Voters will have a deep field of nine candidates to choose from.

Livingston's retirement under a cloud of scandal last December, left the district without a big hitter in Washington.

Among the hopefuls to take his place are Rob Couhig, owner of the New Orleans Zephyrs.

When their veteran representative quit, voters in c.d. 1 " were shocked, horrified, dismayed, lost, angered," says another candidate, 48-year-old ophthalmologist Monica Monica.

"It's like a body blow," Couhig says

One strategy of "Inside Baseball" is a lot like inside politics -- to succeed you've got to have clout.

Former Congressman and Louisiana Governor David Treen, who's already served more than seven years in the House, just may have that clout.

"When elected, I will not consider myself a freshman. As a matter of fact, I will be 84th in the hierarchy of all the Republicans in the Congress," Treen says.

It's a key pitch. Treen says he'll get better committee assignments. A fourth candidate, David Vitter, says Treen won't.

"In fact, in issues like committee assignments, he is not given credit for his past service. And that has not been the tradition of the House," says Vitter.

Livingston, who first said he would not choose among friends, finally endorsed Treen, saying Congress would treat a veteran different from a rookie.

"They are going to respond one way to a person who has never been there before and another way to a person who has got eight years in Congress under his belt," says Livingston, who gave up his seat during the impeachment debate last year once it was revealed that Hustler magazine was preparing to publish a report about his alleged extramarital affairs.

But would-be rookie members are making their own pitch.

"Nobody gains it (clout) instantly -- to take the same clout of a person who was going to be speaker of the House. You have to be rational about that," says Couhig.

"Neophytes sometimes have tremendous visionary thinking," says Monica.

A fifth candidate agrees.

"It takes usually about 10 years for any congressman, for their name to be known in Washington, D.C. But for me, I don't have that problem," says David Duke.

Duke is the white supremacist who has run for both the Senate and the governor's chair and had been elected to the Louisiana legislature.

"If you look at how he (Duke) has performed in the past, in a field with several real conservatives, he has done quite poorly," says Vitter.

The candidates are also divided on the issue of term limits. Monica has pledged to serve no more than three terms. Vitter likes term limits, but says such a pledge would further cut the district's clout.

Treen, who is 70, opposes term limits.

There are two Democrats in the nine-candidate field, but they don't bat well in a district overwhelmingly white and Republican. The top two candidates in the May 1 election face a runoff on May 29.

Friday, April 30, 1999

• Deep field for special House election in Louisiana
• Seventeen congressmen file suit against Clinton to end war
• Jesse Jackson visits captured U.S. soldiers
• Rift between governor, lieutenant sinks to parking spots
• Republican presidential hopefuls oppose gun control
• GOP campaign aides working for free
• Clinton invites Hollywood, NRA to session on youth violence
• Evidence from CBS, Newsweek sought for Steele trial
• Man convicted of forging JFK documents
• Bush committee expects $15 million by June
• New York Democrats vow to elect a woman in 2000 -- but who?
• Controversy over commutation central to Missouri Senate race

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