Lawsuit Challenging Louisiana Senator’s Residency Thrown Out
Published at
Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images(BATON ROUGE, La.) — The legal challenge to Sen. Mary Landrieu’s Louisiana residency is now a thing of the past.
A judge threw out the lawsuit Friday morning, dismissing it on the basis that it was filed prematurely, according to local reports.
Paul Hollis, the former Senate challenger of Landrieu’s who brought the case, was ordered to pay all court fees. And according to a source with the Landrieu campaign, the judge gave Landrieu the ability to sue Hollis for the attorney fees incurred in fighting the suit.
The Landrieu campaign celebrated the case’s dismissal in a statement sent to media.
“Today’s decision by the judge to throw out this frivolous lawsuit highlights just how desperate Congressman Cassidy and his allies have become in an attempt to win this Senate seat,” said Landrieu campaign communications director Fabien Levy. “The judge was clear — Senator Landrieu resides in Louisiana and is qualified to run for the Senate, as she has three times in the past.”
The dismissal of the suit means that Landrieu, a vulnerable three-term Democrat facing a tough reelection bid in a heavily red state, can re-focus her campaign’s energy back on the issues in the campaign
However, her campaign is still dealing with another distraction related to Landrieu’s improper use of taxpayer funds to charter flights to a couple of campaign events. Though Landrieu has since paid back the taxpayer funds that were misused and has even launched an internal legal review of all her expenses as senator to root out and correct any other errors that may exist, this continues to be a major issue in the right’s attempts to discredit Landrieu.
Follow @ABCNewsRadio
Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio