The Once Unthinkable in Louisiana
Louisiana Democrats field no major candidates for statewide office
Ever since Reconstruction the DNC has ALWAYS counted on winning all the major offices here or at least holding most of them while an odd Republican won one for a term or two. Just as short as 2-3 elections ago, the Dems had every statewide office.
Now they didn't even field a candidate for major statewide office.
The Democrat machine always worked in Louisiana in a very simple and wonderfully effective way. Local sheriffs, mayors, and parish presidents would "bull whip" the local voters to support the top offices. You'd focus your campaigns on electing those offices and once they were in they'd do the heavy lifting to support state and federal elections. But over the past 10-20 years there's been a breakdown in local elections where Republicans started picking up steam. In 1994 when the Republicans steamrolled the DNC in the federal elections we saw huge shifts in voter registrations but still the registered Dems outnumbered the Republicans by a long shot. But even recently after 2006 when the pendulum swung back the other way we still saw Democrats of note switching to Republican. As recently as last year Democrats had the majority in the Statehouse. Now Republicans have a several member lead. At this point it's "me-too-ism" kicking in and representatives are switching to keep from being the minority party.
No doubt a lot of this is due to the demographic shift after Katrina where upwards of 100,000 voters left the state to go to Texas but even before then the farm system for up and coming Democrats started to sputter and fade. Katrina just put a knife right into the heart of the La Democratic Party.
The stroke of 5 p.m. Thursday marked a dark moment in the history of the Louisiana Democratic Party. For the first time in modern memory, the party did not field a single major candidate for statewide office.
Ever since Reconstruction the DNC has ALWAYS counted on winning all the major offices here or at least holding most of them while an odd Republican won one for a term or two. Just as short as 2-3 elections ago, the Dems had every statewide office.
Now they didn't even field a candidate for major statewide office.
The Democrat machine always worked in Louisiana in a very simple and wonderfully effective way. Local sheriffs, mayors, and parish presidents would "bull whip" the local voters to support the top offices. You'd focus your campaigns on electing those offices and once they were in they'd do the heavy lifting to support state and federal elections. But over the past 10-20 years there's been a breakdown in local elections where Republicans started picking up steam. In 1994 when the Republicans steamrolled the DNC in the federal elections we saw huge shifts in voter registrations but still the registered Dems outnumbered the Republicans by a long shot. But even recently after 2006 when the pendulum swung back the other way we still saw Democrats of note switching to Republican. As recently as last year Democrats had the majority in the Statehouse. Now Republicans have a several member lead. At this point it's "me-too-ism" kicking in and representatives are switching to keep from being the minority party.
No doubt a lot of this is due to the demographic shift after Katrina where upwards of 100,000 voters left the state to go to Texas but even before then the farm system for up and coming Democrats started to sputter and fade. Katrina just put a knife right into the heart of the La Democratic Party.