| Elections in Louisiana |
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Louisiana's 2011 state elections were held on October 22, 2011, with runoff elections held on November 19. All statewide elected offices were up, as well as all seats in the Louisiana State Legislature.
Incumbent Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican, ran for a second term, and faced only token opposition. He was expected to win by a wide margin, and ended up winning with nearly 66% of the vote.
Piyush "Bobby" Jindal is an American politician who was the 55th Governor of Louisiana between 2008 and 2016, and previously served as a U.S. Congressman and as the vice chairman of the Republican Governors Association.
Incumbent Lieutenant Governor Jay Dardenne was elected in a 2010 special election, and was elected to a full term. His opponent was Republican Billy Nungesser Jr., the Plaquemines Parish president. [2]
John Leigh "Jay" Dardenne, Jr. is a lawyer and politician from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who is currently serving as commissioner of administration for Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards. A moderate Republican, Dardenne served as the 53rd lieutenant governor of his state from 2010 to 2016. Running as a Republican, he won a special election for lieutenant governor held in conjunction with the regular November 2, 2010 general election. At the time, Dardenne was Louisiana secretary of state. Formerly, Dardenne was a member of the Louisiana State Senate for the Baton Rouge suburbs, a position he filled from 1992 until his election as secretary of state on September 30, 2006.
William Harold Nungesser, is an American politician serving since January 11, 2016, as the 54th Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana.
Plaquemines Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census the population is 23,042. The parish seat is Pointe à la Hache. The parish was formed in 1807.
Unofficial results from the Secretary of State website. [3]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Jay Dardenne (incumbent) | 504,228 | 53.1 | ||
| Republican | Billy Nungesser Jr. | 444,750 | 46.9 | ||
| Turnout | 948,978 | ||||
Incumbent Attorney General Buddy Caldwell was elected as a Democrat in 2007, but switched parties in early 2011. Former Congressman Joseph Cao, also a Republican, filed to run against Caldwell, but dropped out of the race shortly after, [4] leaving Caldwell unopposed.
Ánh Quang "Joseph" Cao is a Vietnamese-American politician who was the U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 2nd congressional district from 2009 to 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party. In April 2011, Cao announced his candidacy for the office of Attorney General of Louisiana, but in September 2011 he pulled out of the race. The incumbent Buddy Caldwell ran unopposed for a second term.
Incumbent Commissioner Michael G. Strain, a Republican, was first elected in 2007. He faced Democrat Jamie LaBranche, an arborist and horticulturist, and Reform Party candidate Belinda "B" Alexandrenko, a three-time gubernatorial candidate. He was re-elected with 66.5% of the vote.
Michael Gene Strain is the first Republican ever elected to the position of Louisiana Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner.
Unofficial results from the Secretary of State website. [5]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Mike Strain (incumbent) | 640,631 | 66.5 | ||
| Democratic | Jamie LaBranche | 267,576 | 27.8 | ||
| Reform | Belinda Alexandrenko | 54,842 | 5.7 | ||
| Turnout | 963,049 | ||||
Incumbent Commissioner Jim Donelon, a Republican, was first elected in a 2006 special election. His opponent was Democrat Donald C. Hodge, an attorney, who he defeated by a 2 to 1 margin.
Unofficial results from the Secretary of State website. [6]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Jim Donelon (incumbent) | 651,285 | 67.5 | ||
| Democratic | Donald C. Hodge | 313,931 | 32.5 | ||
| Turnout | 965,216 | ||||
Incumbent Secretary of State Tom Schedler, a Republican, was appointed to the position following Jay Dardenne's election as Lieutenant Governor. He faced Louisiana House of Representatives Speaker Jim Tucker, also a Republican, who he narrowly defeated.
Unofficial results from the Secretary of State website. [7]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Tom Schedler (incumbent) | 449,370 | 50.5 | ||
| Republican | Jim Tucker | 440,872 | 49.5 | ||
| Turnout | 890,242 | ||||
Incumbent Treasurer John Neely Kennedy, a Republican, was first elected in 1999. He was unopposed.
Prior to the election, Republicans held 22 seats in the Louisiana Senate, while Democrats held 17. In the jungle primary, the Republicans gained a net of two Senate seats, giving them 24 seats to the Democrats' 15 seats. All four runoffs were intraparty runoffs.
Prior to the election, the Louisiana House of Representatives consisted of 57 Republicans, 46 Democrats, 2 Independents, and one vacancy. After the jungle primary the House makeup stood at 54 Republicans, 40 Democrats, 1 Independent, and 10 to be determined in runoff elections. In the runoffs not featuring two candidates of the same party, 5 Democrats, 4 Republicans and one Independent candidate were elected, so after the runoff elections the House makeup stood at 58 Republicans, 45 Democrats and 2 Independents.
Melvin Lee Holden, known as Kip Holden, is an American politician who served from 2005 to 2016 as the Democratic Mayor-President of Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, USA. The parish includes the state capital of Baton Rouge and smaller suburban cities such as Baker, Central City, and Zachary.
Since 1977 state elections in Louisiana have used a unique system similar to the majority-runoff system used in some other jurisdictions, which in Louisiana has become known as a “jungle” primary or an "open" primary, where all the candidates for an office run together in one election. If someone gets a majority, that individual wins outright; otherwise, the top two candidates, irrespective of partisan affiliation, meet in a runoff election. This primary system is used for state, parish, municipal, and Congressional races, but is not used for presidential elections.
Louisiana's 2007 state elections were held on October 20, 2007, with runoff elections held on November 17. All statewide elected offices were up, as well as all seats in the Louisiana State Legislature.
The 2008 congressional elections in Louisiana to determine representation for the state of Louisiana in the United States House of Representatives occurred November 4, 2008. Louisiana has seven seats in the House, apportioned according to the 2000 United States Census. Representatives are elected for two-year terms; those elected will serve in the 111th Congress from January 4, 2009 until January 3, 2011. The election coincided with the 2008 U.S. presidential election.
John James Maginnis was a writer of columns and commentaries on current political events in his native Louisiana. Maginnis' column, always the most current analysis of a political event in Louisiana, appeared in newspapers and other sources statewide. His website is read by political analysts nationwide as a barometer of governmental trends and events in Louisiana.
The Louisiana gubernatorial election of 2011 was held on October 22 with 10 candidates competing in a nonpartisan blanket primary. The incumbent, Bobby Jindal, was elected to a second term as governor of Louisiana. Since he received an outright majority of the vote in the blanket primary, a runoff election that would have occurred on November 19 was unnecessary.
John Thomas Schedler, known as Tom Schedler, is a politician from suburban St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, USA, who served as the District 11 Louisiana state senator from 1996 to 2008, when he was term-limited after twelve years. Thereafter, he was named chief deputy to then Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne, a former Senate colleague of Schedler's from Baton Rouge. When Dardenne became lieutenant governor-elect, Schedler began acting as secretary of state. Dardenne's elevation to lieutenant governor was delayed formally and officially to November 22, 2010, to obviate a statutory requirement to hold a special election to fill the position of secretary of state. Thus on November 22, Schedler became the official secretary of state.
Roger Francis Villere, Jr. is an American businessman from Metairie in Jefferson Parish in suburban New Orleans, who was the former chairman of the Louisiana Republican Party, a post he filled from March 2004 to February 2018 at the behest of the GOP State Central Committee. He was succeeded by New Orleans businessman Louis Gurvich in February 2018, when Villere did not seek reelection as the party chairman. At the time of his retirement, he was the longest serving state Republican Party chairman in the United States. He succeeded Pat Brister of St. Tammany Parish, the first woman to have been the state GOP chairman, who served from 2000 to 2004.
Dudley Anthony Gautreaux, known as Butch Gautreaux, is a Democratic former member of the Louisiana State Senate from Morgan City, Louisiana. From 2000 to 2012, he represented Senate District 21. In 2012, the reconfigured district incorporated mostly Republican portions of Iberia, Lafourche, St. Mary, and Lafourche parishes.
The Louisiana gubernatorial election of 2015 was held on November 21, 2015, to elect the governor of Louisiana. Incumbent Republican Governor Bobby Jindal was not eligible to run for re-election to a third term because of term limits established by the Louisiana Constitution.
United States gubernatorial elections were held in three states in 2015 as part of the 2015 United States elections. In Kentucky and Mississippi the elections were held on Tuesday, November 3, and in Louisiana, as no candidate received a majority of votes at the primary election on Saturday, October 24, 2015, a runoff election was held on Saturday, November 21. The last regular gubernatorial elections for all three states were in 2011. Democrats won the open seat of term-limited Republican Bobby Jindal in Louisiana, while Republicans reelected incumbent Phil Bryant in Mississippi and picked up the seat of term-limited Democrat Steve Beshear in Kentucky.
Elbert Lee Guillory is a former member of the Louisiana State Senate. An American Republican, he represented District 24, including his native Opelousas, and several rural precincts, from May 2, 2009, when he won a special election, until January 11, 2016, when his full term to which he was elected in 2011 ended.
The Louisiana lieutenant gubernatorial election took place on October 24, 2015, to elect the Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, with a runoff election held on November 21, 2015. Incumbent Republican Lieutenant Governor Jay Dardenne did not for re-election to a second full term in office. He instead ran for Governor. Billy Nungesser won the election defeating Kip Holden, despite a Democratic victory in the gubernatorial election, in which John Bel Edwards defeated David Vitter by a similar margin.
A general election was held in the U.S. state of Louisiana on October 24, 2015. All of Louisiana's executive officers, and both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature were up for election. Under Louisiana's jungle primary system, all candidates appeared on the same ballot, regardless of party and voters voted for any candidate, regardless of their party affiliation. Since no candidate received a majority of the vote during the primary election, a runoff election was held on November 21, 2015 between the top two candidates in the primary. Louisiana is the only state that has a jungle primary system.
Francis C. Heitmeier is a lobbyist and former manager of a telephone company from his native New Orleans, Louisiana, who is a Democratic former member of the Louisiana State Senate for District 7 in Orleans, Jefferson, and Plaquemines parishes. First elected in 1991, he was term-limited and ineligible to seek a fifth term in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 20, 2007.
