Louisiana gubernatorial election, 2007

Louisiana gubernatorial election, 2007
Louisiana
October 20, 2007
 
Nominee Bobby Jindal Walter Boasso
Party Republican Democratic
Popular vote 699,672 226,364
Percentage 53.9% 17.4%
 
Candidate John Georges Foster Campbell
Party Independent Democratic
Popular vote 186,800 161,425
Percentage 14.4% 12.4%

Parish Results
Governor before election

Kathleen Babineaux Blanco
Democratic

 Elected Governor

Bobby Jindal
Republican

The Louisiana gubernatorial election of 2007 was held on October 20. The filing deadline for candidates was September 6. On the day of the election, all 12 candidates competed in an open jungle primary. With all precincts reporting, Bobby Jindal won the election with 54%.[1]

Background

Elections in Louisiana, with the exception of U.S. presidential elections (and congressional races from 2008 until 2010), follow a variation of the open primary system called the jungle primary. Candidates of any and all parties are listed on one ballot; voters need not limit themselves to the candidates of one party. Unless one candidate takes more than 50% of the vote in the first round, a run-off election is then held between the top two candidates, who may in fact be members of the same party. This scenario occurred in the 7th District congressional race in 1996, when Democrats Chris John and Hunter Lundy made the runoff for the open seat, and in 1999, when Republicans Suzanne Haik Terrell and Woody Jenkins made the runoff for Commissioner of Elections.

Candidates

Democratic

Republicans

Libertarian

Independent

Campaign

Blanco's faltering popularity

Originally planning to run for re-election, the incumbent governor, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, entered the election year with a significant erosion in her level of popular support, due in large part to perceptions of inadequate performance in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In November 2006, Blanco had an approval rating of 39%, and she had encountered further political setbacks since November.

In December 2006, Blanco called a special session of the Louisiana State Legislature which she intended to use to dispense $2.1 billion worth of tax cuts, teacher raises, road projects and other spending programs. Legislators allied with Blanco attempted to lift a spending cap imposed by the state constitution, but Republican lawmakers defeated Blanco's spending measures. The high-profile defeat further eroded Blanco's political reputation.[2]

By late 2006 and early 2007, Blanco was facing increasingly heated accusations of delays and incompetence in administering the Road Home Program, a state-run program which Blanco had set up following Katrina in order to distribute federal aid money to Katrina victims for damage to their homes. By January 2007, fewer than 250 of an estimated 100,000 applicants had received payments from the program, and many of the payments were apparently based on assessments which grossly undervalued the cost of damage to homes.[3]

By January 2007, the first opinion polls of the campaign showed Blanco trailing expected opponent Bobby Jindal by over 20 percentage points. Facing an upcoming re-election campaign with greatly reduced popularity, Blanco began her campaign by making repeated public criticisms of the administration of President George W. Bush in January 2007. Noting that Bush neglected to mention Gulf Coast reconstruction in his 2007 State of the Union Address, Blanco called for a bipartisan Congressional investigation into the conduct of the Bush administration following Katrina, to determine whether partisan politics played a role in the slow response to the storm.[4] This call followed comments by disgraced former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director Michael D. Brown, who claimed that the White House had planned to upstage Blanco by federalizing the National Guard in the days following the storm. Blanco also repeated accusations that Mississippi received preferential treatment because its governor, Haley Barbour, is a Republican.[5]

Democrats drop/decline

Beginning in February 2007, speculation grew among Louisiana political commentators that former U.S. Senator and current Washington, D.C. lobbyist John Breaux would announce his candidacy.[6][7][8] However, controversy emerged as to whether Breaux would meet the residency requirements to run for Governor as he had listed his primary address in Maryland since 2005 and was registered to vote there. [9]

On March 20, 2007, Blanco announced that she would not be running for re-election. She stated that removing herself from the campaign would allow her to focus the remainder of her term on Louisiana's recovery without the distraction of campaigning for re-election. But her announcement came after weeks of growing calls from members of the Louisiana Democratic party for her to step aside and allow a more popular candidate to face Jindal.[10]

On March 29, John Breaux made his first Louisiana public appearance since speculation began concerning his potential candidacy. Breaux said that he intended to run, and would announce his candidacy as soon as Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti, a Democrat, gave a formal legal opinion on whether Breaux was eligible to run. At issue was the clause in the Louisiana constitution which states that a candidate for governor must be a 'citizen' of the State of Louisiana; what constitutes a citizen is not defined.[11] The state Republican party began running advertisements attacking Breaux as a resident of Maryland.

On April 13, Breaux released a statement that he would not be running for governor. Attorney General Foti had declined to issue an opinion on Breaux's eligibility, stating it was an issue for the courts to decide. Breaux stated that he did not want the issue of eligibility to overshadow his campaign, as a court challenge would not occur until September.[12]

On April 17, Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu also declined to run leaving the field very open on the Democratic side.[13] Due to the lack of a high-profile Democratic candidate, party leaders approached Republican State Senator Walter Boasso about switching parties;[14] Boasso formally switched to the Democratic Party on April 26.[15]

Republican fundraising efforts

As of the April 2007 reports, two Republican candidates have emerged with the largest campaign warchests in Louisiana history – Georges with $5.5 million cash on hand and Jindal who has received $5 million in campaign financing. The financial strength of the two Republicans presented a tremendous challenge to recruiting a strong candidate for the Democratic party. Georges, however, later left the Louisiana GOP and registered as an independent for the gubernatorial race.[12]

Democratic attack on Jindal's religious writings

An ad campaign by the Louisiana Democratic Party launched in late August, 2007 which attacked Bobby Jindal on the basis of supposed inflammatory remarks made about Protestantism. The ad was solely aired in the largely Protestant central and northern districts of the state. The ad drew attention to essays Jindal had written over a decade previously discussing his Catholic faith and conversion. One such essay titled "How Catholicism Is Different – The Catholic Church Isn't Just Another Denomination" was published in 1996 in the New Oxford Review.[16] Jindal said about the ad, "They're absolute lies. We're not talking about an exaggeration". A letter from the campaign went further to say "each claim made in the advertisement distorts Mr. Jindal's positions with false and grossly distorted statements." [17]

Polling

Source Date Boasso (D) Campbell (D) Georges (I) Jindal (R)
Loyola Insititute of Politics Oct 2-8, 2007 9% 7% 9% 50%
Southeastern Louisiana University Oct 1-7, 2007 10% 6% 9% 46%
Kitchens Group Sep 4, 2007 11% 8% 7% 51% Nagin (D)
Verne Kennedy Aug 23, 2007 11% 3% 8% 50% 7%
Southern Media and Opinion Research Aug 3-6, 2007 10% 3% 2% 60% 11%
Southern Media and Opinion Research Aug 3-6, 2007 14% 4% 1% 63% N/A
Anzalone Liszt Research Jul 8-12, 2007 21% 6% 1% 52% N/A
Anzalone Liszt Research May 7–9, 2007 6% 9% 1% 62% N/A Bernhard (D) Breaux (D) Ieyoub (D) Kennedy (D) Landrieu (D)
Verne Kennedy Mar 29 – Apr 3, 2007 1% 2% 10% 39% N/A 0% 23% 1% 4% 5%
Southern Media and Opinion Research Mar 19, 2007 2% 5% N/A 56% N/A N/A 26% N/A N/A N/A Blanco (D)
Southern Media and Opinion Research Mar 19, 2007 2% 4% N/A 59% N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 24%
Southern Media and Opinion Research Jan 18, 2007 N/A 6% N/A 58% N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 31% Melancon (D) Vitter (R)
Verne Kennedy Oct 24-30, 2006 N/A N/A N/A 52% N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 9% 20% 3% 9%
Verne Kennedy Mar 17-19, 2006 1% 1% N/A 39% N/A 1% 17% 2% N/A N/A 16% N/A 10%
Verne Kennedy Feb 7-15, 2006 N/A 1% 23% 36% N/A 1% N/A N/A N/A 7% 16% N/A 5%

Results

Parishes won by Gubernatorial Candidates in the October 20, 2007 Election.
  Bobby Jindal (60)
  Foster Campbell (2)
  Walter Boasso (1)
  John Georges (1)
Louisiana gubernatorial election, 2007
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Republican Bobby Jindal 699,672 53.91
Democratic Walter Boasso 226,364 17.44
Independent John Georges 186,800 14.39
Democratic Foster Campbell 161,425 12.44
Democratic Mary Volentine Smith 5,843 0.45
Independent Belinda Alexandrenko 4,782 0.37
Independent Anthony Gentile 3,369 0.36
Libertarian T. Lee Horne, III 2,639 0.20
Independent Sheldon Forest 2,319 0.18
Democratic M. V. "Vinny" Mendoza 2,076 0.16
Democratic Hardy Parkerson 1,661 0.13
Independent Arthur D. "Jim" Nichols 993 0.08
Majority 473,308 36.47%
Turnout 1,297,943
Republican gain from Democratic Swing
Preceded by
2003 gubernatorial election		 Louisiana gubernatorial elections Succeeded by
2011 gubernatorial election

See also

References

  1. ↑ Louisiana Secretary of State Retrieved October 21, 2007
  2. ↑ Barrow, Bill (2006-12-17). "Session debacle fuels GOP's resolve; some lawmakers decry partisanship.". New Orleans Times-Picayune.
  3. ↑ Meitrodt, Jeffrey (2007-01-28). "Understaffed and Overwhelmed: The firm administering Louisiana's Road Home program has consistently underestimated the magnitude of the task, records show.". New Orleans Times-Picayune. Retrieved 2006-01-29.
  4. ↑ Hammer, David (2007-01-25). "Blanco criticizes president's speech: Failure to mention Gulf Coast irks many". New Orleans Times-Picayune. Retrieved 2006-01-29.
  5. ↑ Walsh, Bill (2007-01-23). "Blanco calls for federal Katrina probe: Ex-director says White House tried to foil governor". New Orleans Times-Picayune. Retrieved 2006-01-29.
  6. ↑ Dubos, Clancy (2006-12-17). "Breaux ex Machina". Gambit Weekly.
  7. ↑ Cillizza, Chris (2007-02-23). "Breaux to the Rescue?". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2006-01-26.
  8. ↑ Maginnis, John (2007-02-21). "Desperate Dems look to Breaux again". The New Orleans Times-Picayune. Retrieved 2007-02-26.
  9. ↑ Deslatte, Melinda (2007-02-22). "Breaux's residency questioned amid rumors of possible candidacy". Thibodaux Daily Comet. Retrieved 2007-02-26.
  10. ↑ Anderson, Ed (2007-03-21). "Blanco bows out of race". New Orleans Times-Picayune. Retrieved 2007-03-21.
  11. ↑ Anderson, Ed (2007-03-30). "Breaux moves forward with campaign". New Orleans Times-Picayune. Retrieved 2007-03-30.
  12. 1 2 Anderson, Ed (2007-04-13). "Breaux says he will not run for governor". New Orleans Times-Picayune. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  13. ↑ Simpson, Doug (2007-04-17). "Mitch Landrieu declines La. governor bid". Associated Press. Retrieved 2007-04-17.
  14. ↑ Anderson, Ed (2007-04-21). "Demos hunt for big name candidate". New Orleans Times-Picayune. Retrieved 2007-04-21.
  15. ↑ Anderson, Ed (2007-04-27). "Boasso makes switch to Democrats". New Orleans Times-Picayune. Retrieved 2007-04-27.
  16. ↑ Bobby, Jindal (Dec 1996). "How Catholicism Is Different – The Catholic Church Isn't Just Another Denomination". New Oxford Review.
  17. ↑ Moller, Jan (2007-08-22). "Jindal wants religious insult claims dropped". New Orleans Times-Picayune. Retrieved 2007-08-22.

External links

Campaign sites

Democratic

Republican

Libertarian

Independent

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