Grace Landrieu insists that her family is nothing like the Kennedys.

As she sat on the edge of the vacant stage at her father's election party shortly after Mitch Landrieu lost his bid to be New Orleans ' next mayor, the 18-year-old was reflective. She took a deep breath as she leaned back and shifted her weight to the palms of her hands. After months of campaign rallies, debates, public appearances and photo opps, she was pleased that things were “getting back to normal.”

But for anyone in the Landrieu family, being on the campaign trail may be as normal as life gets.

In a state where generations of powerful families and political dynasties are commonplace, the Landrieus, who have often been compared to the famed Kennedy family because their progressive Democratic background, reign supreme. Even with the recent mayoral election loss, the Landrieu family remains a political powerhouse in Louisiana .

Unlike other famous political families, the two-generation-old Landrieu political tradition is fairly new. The current Landrieu officeholders (Mitch is the state's Lieutenant Governor, while sister Mary is a U.S. Senator) will likely remain in the political spotlight for awhile. But given the strong family ties, speculation is focusing on who will emerge from the third generation of Landrieus.

After seeing Mitch and Cheryl Landrieus' eldest daughter, Grace, at many campaign events, and featured along with her siblings on campaign literature, it might be a safe bet to predict that the teenager might become the rising political star of the family. Unless you talk to Grace, that is.

Grace said she does not plan to run for office anytime soon and isn't even a fan of all the political “hoopla” that accompanies her relatives' campaigns. Soon after accompanying her parents and younger brothers, Matt and Ben, to the polls on Election Day, she quickly hustled away from the flashing light bulbs and video crews of the media.

Despite a request from her father's press secretary to stand with the rest of the family as he was being interviewed, Grace chose to chat with a family friend instead while her parents and siblings were surrounded by local and national media.

At this point in her life, Grace says she has other things on her mind. Just months before her father's mayoral campaign started, she was faced with one of the biggest decisions of her life – choosing where she will go to college. The recent graduate of New Orleans ' prominent all-girl Catholic high school, St. Mary's Dominican, ultimately got accepted into Georgetown University in Washington D.C. , and will enroll in the fall.

Like many teenagers, she has a wide array of interests. On her future course of study she said, “I'm majoring in this thing called American studies. It's good because if I want to be a journalist or go to law school, I can do it.”

Asked yet again by a reporter whether she had political aspirations, Grace averted her eyes, shook her head and solemnly said, “no.”

Even though the post-Katrina New Orleans mayoral election drew widespread media attention to Landrieu and Nagin, the family's youngest generation has remained below the radar.

Mitch and Cheryl Landrieu's five children — Grace, 18; Emily, 17; Matthew, 15; Benjamin, 12; and William, 6 — have avoided the media's glare for most of their childhood.

Like any proud grandparent, Marilyn Quirk, the children's maternal grandmother, is eager to brag about the youngsters and their interests: baseball for Ben, student council for Emily, video games for Will and football for Matt.

“They're all just really nice kids,” Quirk said.

Quirk's praise of the Landrieu family is a sentiment many Louisianans share, even including some of the people who have lost in elections to the family.

Darryl Ward, a Landrieu campaign volunteer and two-time U.S. senatorial candidate who lost to Mary Landrieu in 1996, said he has a great love for the Landrieu family.

“Some people are born to be politicians. Some people hear the voice of the people and you have to stand when you hear that voice. The Landrieus hear the voice of the people,” said the Metairie resident.

Maurice “Moon” Landrieu heard that voice first. The 76-year-old has served in all three branches of city and state government. According to Tulane University professor and historian Douglas Brinkley, “Moon is like what Joseph Kennedy is to the Kennedys, Prescott Bush is to the Bushes, or John Adams was to the Adams family. You know, Moon is the patriarch.”

In 1960, Moon was elected to the Louisiana State House of Representatives and won a New Orleans city council seat six years later. He served two terms as mayor of New Orleans , was Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Jimmy Carter and became a federal appellate court judge in 1991.

He and his wife, Verna, have 9 children. In addition to Mitch and Mary, the other children have a range of occupations: a judge (Madeleine), an assistant U.S. attorney (Maurice Jr.), a real estate broker (Mark), a businesswoman (Michelle), a lawyer (Martin), a special education teacher (Melinda) and a stay-at-home mom (Melanie).

As Louisiana residents know, political families are intertwined with the history of both New Orleans and the state.

Hale Boggs, who died in an airplane accident in 1972, was U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader and a personal friend of President Lyndon B. Johnson. After his death, his wife, Lindy, was elected to take his place in the House and went on to become U.S. Ambassador to The Vatican .

The Morials and the Longs have equally impressive records of public service.

In 1978, Ernest “Dutch” Morial became the first black mayor of New Orleans and was the first black to receive a doctorate of jurisprudence from Louisiana State University 's Schoo of Law. Sixteen years later, his son Marc would edge out another former mayor's son, Mitch Landrieu, to become New Orleans ' mayor.

The Long family which started its role in public service with former governor and senator Huey P. Long led to one of the longest-lasting political dynasties in modern American history.

Brinkley, said that political dynasties are as much a part of Louisiana culture as brass bands and gumbo.

“This is a kind of parlor politics in Louisiana ,” Brinkley said. “A lot of the business is done on the front porch or the parlor so families like the Landrieus were always exposed to it. Their house was like a political salon; the young kids get impressed and it becomes like a family business.”

He also attributed the prominence of political dynasties to the large Catholic influence in Louisiana .

“A lot of it is due to Catholicism, in one hand, because Catholic families are always large,” Brinkley said. “You'll notice that the other state that has a history of political dynasties is Massachusetts with the Kennedys. Catholic families sometimes would have five or six kids,”

But as much as large political families are celebrated in Louisiana , they can provoke negative reactions too. Landrieu's name recognition helped him in the mayoral election, but it was undoubtedly a reason some voted against him. The family's long association with progressive, liberal causes has put it at odds with some constituencies.

At a Landrieu campaign event, a white Landrieu supporter who asked to only be identified as James because he works in city government said, “it helped him in the black community but hurt him when it came to conservative whites.”

No one is counting Mitch Landrieu out though as a political candidate. He is still a top state officeholder and seems primed for a governor's campaign run in 2007. If he does, his family will likely once again be front and center.

For this Election Day, Grace was finally old enough to cast her ballot in an election. After coming out of the voting booth, her mother Cheryl asked, “did you remember to push ‘Cast Ballot'?”

Smiling lightly, she let out a sigh and quietly said, “Yessss, mom.”

A day later, she would walk across the stage at her high school graduation. Numerous members of her large immediate and extended family sat in the audience, cheering her on. With three generations of Landrieus all in one place, it was an authentic family moment.

Grace Landrieu says she will continue to take all of the attention in stride. And she is insistent that any comparisons between her family and the Kennedys are purely exaggerated.

Laughing and rolling her piercing blue eyes, she quipped, “my mom isn't a Jackie O.”