Louisiana voters vote Oct. 12 to elect a governor and other state officers, but for once, almost nobody sees national implications in the campaign. Good. It’s a salutary development when state races are decided on state issues, for state reasons, without the chattering classes trying to nationalize them.

The incumbent governor, John Bel Edwards, is a rarity these days: a Democratic governor in a Deep South state. With polling approval ratings slightly over 50%, he is a heavy, but not overwhelming, favorite in a multi-candidate race featuring two major, but rather nondescript, Republican challengers. In Louisiana’s system, all candidates, regardless of party, run on one ballot. If a candidate receives a simple majority of the vote, he wins outright; if nobody gets more than 50%, the top two finishers, regardless of party, compete in a general-election runoff.