1995 Louisiana gubernatorial election

1995 Louisiana gubernatorial election

←  1991 October 21, 1995 (first round) November 18, 1995 (runoff) 1999  →

Candidate Mike Foster Cleo Fields Mary Landrieu Party Republican Democratic Democratic First round 385,267 26.14% 280,921 19.06% 271,938 18.45% Runoff 984,499 63.50% 565,861 36.50% Eliminated   Candidate Buddy Roemer Phil Preis Party Republican Democratic First round 263,330 17.87% 133,271 9.04% Runoff Eliminated Eliminated

First round parish results Runoff parish results Foster:     20–30%     30–40%     40–50%     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90% Fields:     20–30%     30–40%     40–50%     50–60%     70–80% Landrieu:     20–30%     30–40% Roemer:     20–30%     30–40% Preis:     20–30%     30–40%

Governor before election Edwin Edwards Democratic Elected Governor Mike Foster Republican

The 1995 Louisiana gubernatorial election was held on November 18, 1995, to elect the governor of Louisiana.

Incumbent Democratic governor Edwin Edwards had planned to run for re-election to a second consecutive and fifth overall term in office, but he announced in June 1994, shortly after marrying his second wife Candy Picou, that he would be retiring from politics at the end of his term. ^[1]

All elections in Louisiana— with the exception of U.S. presidential elections— 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 when voting. 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.

In this election, the first round of voting was held on October 21, 1995, with Republican state senator Mike Foster and Democratic U.S. representative Cleo Fields finishing first and second with 26.1% and 19%, respectively. Foster defeated Fields in the November 18 runoff in a landslide. As of 2023, this is the most recent Louisiana gubernatorial election in which a successful Republican candidate was not elected in the first round.

Candidates

The early field included eight individuals considered to be "major" candidates. These were State Representative Robert Adley, U.S. representative Cleo Fields, State Senator Mike Foster, U.S. representative William J. Jefferson, State Treasurer Mary Landrieu, former governor Buddy Roemer, Lieutenant Governor Melinda Schwegmann and former governor Dave Treen.

On September 8, Foster decided to switch his party affiliation at the time of qualifying from Democratic to Republican, this decision may have been noted as a gamechanger towards the outcome of the jungle primary.

The makeup of the field led some analysts to dub this the "twins election", as each major candidate had a rival who appealed to a similar constituency or voter base. The sets of "twins" were: two mainstream Republican former governors (Treen and Roemer); two moderate Democratic female statewide office holders with ties to New Orleans (Landrieu and Schwegmann); two conservative Democratic state legislators (Foster and Adley); and two liberal, black Democratic U.S. representatives (Fields and Jefferson).

Treen and Jefferson eventually chose not to officially enter the race. Attorney Phil Preis also entered the race as a Democrat and with a self-financed campaign was able to enter the top tier of candidates. Eight minor candidates, two Democrats and six Independents, also qualified for the ballot.

Democratic Party

Declared

• Gene H. Alexander
• Belinda Alexandrenko
• Robert Adley, state representative
• Cleo Fields, U.S. representative
• Mary Landrieu, Louisiana State Treasurer
• Phil Preis, attorney
• Melinda Schwegmann, Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana

Withdrew

• Harry Lee, Sheriff of Jefferson Parish ^[2]

Declined

• William J. Jefferson, U.S. representative

Republican Party

Declared

• Mike Foster, state senator from St. Mary Parish
• Buddy Roemer, former governor (1988-1992)

Declined

• Dave Treen, former governor

Independents

Declared

• Lonnie Creech
• Ronnie Glynn Johnson, candidate for Mayor of Shreveport in 1990 and candidate for Governor in 1991
• Arthur D. "Jim" Nichols
• Anne Thompson, Republican candidate for Governor in 1991, for Louisiana's 1st congressional district in 1992 and for the State Senate in 1994
• Darryl Paul Ward, Democratic nominee for Louisiana's 6th congressional district in 1994
• Kenneth Woods

Results

Louisiana gubernatorial election jungle primary, 1995

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Mike Foster	385,267	26.10
	Democratic	Cleo Fields	280,921	19.03
	Democratic	Mary Landrieu	271,938	18.43
	Republican	Buddy Roemer	263,330	17.84
	Democratic	Phil Preis	133,271	9.03
	Democratic	Melinda Schwegmann	71,288	4.83
	Democratic	Robert Adley	27,534	1.87
	Independent	Arthur D. "Jim" Nichols	16,616	1.13
	Democratic	Gene H. Alexander	5,688	0.39
	Independent	Kenneth Woods	4,964	0.34
	Independent	Darryl Paul Ward	4,210	0.29
	Democratic	Belinda Alexandrenko	3,161	0.21
	Independent	Lonnie Creech	2,338	0.16
	Independent	Ronnie Glynn Johnson	1,884	0.13
	Independent	Anne Thompson	1,416	0.1
Total votes			1,473,826	100

Louisiana gubernatorial election runoff, 1995

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Mike Foster	984,499	63.5
	Democratic	Cleo Fields	565,861	36.5
Total votes			1,550,360	100
	Republican gain from Democratic

See also

• 1995 United States gubernatorial elections

External links

• Gubernatorial runoff debate

References

• Secretary of State Elections Division. Official Election Results Database ^{[ permanent dead link ]}

1. "Governor Retirement Address". C-SPAN. June 6, 1994. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
2. "Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee dies - Breaking News Updates New Orleans - Times-Picayune - NOLA.com". Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved March 22, 2017.