How does Republican Jindal wins LA governor without run-off?

[Greenwood]

Was hoping for a run-off.

I have always thought LA is a real possibility for us. This is disappointing.

[BridgeTheGap]

1. Who is keeping an eye on the voting process in Louisiana?

Not that I'm paranoid or anything.

[marmar]

2. LA pre-Katrina was a hope......

But when large numbers of African American voters were displaced across the country, that hope died. Without the black vote, Louisiana is a very deep red state.

[...of J.Temperance]

10. Sadly you're correct

The only thing that had kept Louisiana Democratic for so long, was the huge black vote from Orleans Parish.

With a greatly reduced black vote in Orleans Parish....the very Republican Jefferson Parish, which is as huge for the Republicans as the old Orleans Parish was for us, wipes out any significant vote we can ever get now from the smaller Orleans Parish.

:( How utterly depressing.

[BrklynLib at work]

3. I could not believe it when I heard his policies...anti-choice, anti-hate crime laws,

and want creationism to be taught in schools.
What a sad day for LA.

[rfranklin]

4. Hi mother is a nuclear physicist...so much for science!

He is being touted as another "miracle worker" in the same terms that GW Bush the Lesser was when he came out of TX.

[Greenwood]

5. Can legal issues be raised over the black vote being displaced?

Seems pretty crummy that our base was uprooted.

[zulchzulu]

6. Jindal won enough votes to avoid a run-off

The Democrats who ran were second tier and knew he was going to get the votes outside of New Orleans. Louisiana is in a very sorry state right now, no pun intended.

Jindal will get sucked into the corruption vortex soon enough if he's not there already. His winning will not help progressive groups that wanted to come in and pitch in on the Post-Storm effort.

It's a real shame.

[OHdem10]

7. Give the people a choice between a real Republican and

a Fake and they will choose the real thing everytime.

I am sorry to sound harsh but there is not much difference
between La Democrats and GOPers.

Have you seriously followed M. Landrieu's voting pattern?

A Democratic Governor was in charge during Katrina.

[Greenwood]

8. Blanco was pretty bad....

I know Blanco was a disaster during Katrina but it just upsets me that a GOPer is governor. Plus, our base was uprooted.

[OHdem10]

11. What is more sad --Our national Party has not done or

said one thing effective. There was no real outrage in either
party. As usual since there is not much difference in the two
parties the GOP did exactly as it wished.

This does not mean I approve, it just means I am cynical, I guess.

[...of J.Temperance]

14. Senator Landrieu is the only sort of Democrat that can win in Louisiana

Only Centrist Democrats and Conservative Democrats EVER get elected in Louisiana.

Louisiana ISN'T New York or Illinois, you have to remember that.

Senator Landrieu's voting pattern reflects the politics of her constituents, the people of Louisiana.

[JackRiddler]

9. I'm ignorant of LA politics...

But did anyone really believe Blanco could be re-elected after Katrina? Was there any chance of this?

[...of J.Temperance]

13. Kathleen Blanco didn't run for re-election

Blanco wasn't on the ballot.

The Louisiana Democratic party also made the mistake of not running a big name candidate.

[JackRiddler]

15. Oh.

Well, let's go back to point one: I'm ignorant of LA politics.

[...of J.Temperance]

17. Lol!

It's okay, don't worry about it ;)

[...of J.Temperance]

12. Jindal went to Northern Louisiana which is

Very Redneck and very Christian Fundamentalist....and he told them that he was against abortion 100%, and that he'd converted to Fundie Christianity....and that basically meant that they put their racist instincts to one side and were able to vote for a fellow who's VERY dark skinned, he's not a light-skinned Indian.

So with that vote tied up, and without the huge black vote in Orleans Parish....he had the race sewn up.

IF the black vote in Orleans Parish would have STILL been there in it's entirety, then Bobby Jindal WOULDN'T have won.

As I said down thread, the ONLY thing that kept Louisiana Democratic for so long was the huge black vote in Orleans Parish, now it's gone, well it's not gone completely, but we're never going to get 110,000 votes from Orleans Parish again.

Sadly Louisiana SIMPLY because of a terrible natural disaster will be Republican forever now, probably :(


On Edit: Dammit spelling error

[SteppingRazor]

16. Two reasons. The post-Katrina Democratic diaspora, and there were two Dems on the ballot...

but only one GOP. The Dems split what little Dem vote there was. Really, between those two things the Democrats never stood a chance in this election.

[...of J.Temperance]

18. Yeah it WOULD have helped some if

The Democrats could have just agreed to field ONE candidate.

Of course originally there were three Republican candidates, two switched at the last minute though, one of the Republican's then ran as a Democrat and the other ran as an Independent....which just left Jindal as the only Republican on the ballot.

Louisiana's unique, in that it always has this sort of Free-For-All stuff on the ballot.

[onenote]

19. really bad candidates were the problem

Jindal, who had narrowly lost the governorship four years ago, and subsequently was elected to Congress, was far better known than his opposition, which included "Democrat" Walter Boasso, a republican state senator who switched to the Democratic party after the repubs decided that Jindal was their guy, Foster Campbell, a Democratic public service commissioner, and John Georges, an "independent" who was a former repub who wanted Jindal's endorsement for Lt. Gov and, when he didn't get it, ran for governor as an independent.

Before one starts making sweeping generalizations about Louisiana politics, one ought to take a closer look at the election results from last week. Several Democratic candidates, including Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu did fine, getting enough votes to avoid a run-off.

[Greenwood]

20. I understand. However, I am getting a bad feeling....

that we have either lost or edge or taking too many things for granted since the 2006 mid term elections.

I don't like the feeling I am beginning to get and don't want to wake up after the 2008 election and all our gains have been gone.

Just getting a bad feeling and I am getting kinda pissed but don't really know how to vent if that makes sense.