Recruitment Updates: Pennsylvania and Louisiana

In Pennsylvania, Republican businessman Glen Meakem announced that he will not run against incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) in 2010.

In his statement, Meakem made it clear that he does not agree with or support Specter, and that he is "confident the people of Pennsylvania will replace him in 2010." It looks like Meakem is deferring to former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-PA), who has shown renewed interest in challenging Specter in the GOP primary. Meakem is widely seen as the next strongest Republican challenger after Toomey.

In other news, Specter got his first official primary challenger yesterday in the form of Larry Murphy (R). Murphy challenged Specter in 1998, and received a solid 18% of the vote--not a bad starting block. Murphy will almost undoubtedly be overshadowed by a more high-profile Republican challenger like Toomey, but he might be able to siphon off enough conservative votes from Toomey to let Specter slide by with a win.

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Over in Louisiana, Rep. Charlie Melancon--the only Democratic member of Louisiana's House delegation--says that he probably won't run for Senate next year against Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), who was involved in the 2007 D.C. Madam prostitution scandal.

“Never say never,” Melancon said, “but I’m not contemplating a run at this time.” Melancon was thought to be the DSCC's top choice to challenge Vitter.

The Democrats keep saying that they're going to bring the fight hard to Vitter because of his scandalous past, but they have yet to unite around one candidate, let alone a strong one.

Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu's name is often brought up, but it is unlikely that Louisianans will send two Landrieus to represent them in the Senate (his sister Mary is the state's other Senator), and he has thus far shown no interest in running.

The other two oft-mentioned Democrats are businessmen Jim Bernhard and former Rep. Chris John--who ran against Vitter in 2004. But Bernhard is untested politically and John would not be as formidable of a candidate as he once was and has been out of the world of politics for six years--not to mention he has shown no interest in a rematch.

I've always been of the opinion that despite Vitter's past, he is a relatively safe incumbent--as long as he gets past the GOP primary. Louisiana is one of the few states that has been turning redder while the rest of the country turns bluer, and the Democrats have a weak bench.

This race is staying in the "Likely GOP" category barring any further developments. After all, this is Louisiana we're talking about.