Republicans are set to sweep all seven statewide offices in this fall’s elections as Louisiana Democrats failed to qualify candidates in three races and found only token candidates for four others.
Democrats had hoped that new Orleans lawyer Caroline Fayard, who ran for lieutenant governor in 2010, and New Orleans businessman John Georges, who loaned his campaign $10 million earlier this year for an unspecified state office, would challenge Republicans, but as of Thursday’s filing deadline, both elected not to run.
Gov. Bobby Jindal will face nine neophyte opponents, including four independents, four Democrats and one Libertarian. Two of those Democrats plan to run to Jindal’s right, one as a “Tea Party Democrat.” “This governor has failed to recognize the Tea Party (in Louisiana) at all,” Roberts said. “He has not spoken at any of our events. We feel like it has been a snub,” Ivo “Trey” Roberts told The New Orelans Times-Picayune.
Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, and Secretary of State John Schedler, will all face Republican opponents in their primaries. Dardenne, who defeated Fayard in last year’s special election, will challenge Republican Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser, former Rep. Anh “Joesph” Cao will run against Caldwell, and House Speaker Jim Guy Tucker is opposing Schedler.
Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon, will face political new comer Democrat Donald Hodge, and Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain will face first time candidate Jamie LaBranche. State Treasurer John Kennedy, R, will run completely unopposed.
In August, The Advocate reported that, for the first time in recorded history, Democratic registration dipped below 50 percent in the state. “It’s a significant milestone,” Pearson Cross, head of the Political Science Department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, said.
Sen. Mary Landrieu will be the only Democratic statewide elected office holder.
