Louisiana Runoff-Blanco vs. Jindal

[mndemocrat_29]

Here's the link.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031005/pl_nm/politics_louisiana_dc_1

What does everyone think? I believe that Blanco will have to campaign hard, but she'll pull it off in the end.

Aside from the governor's race, Democrats had a very good night. Mitch Landrieu, brother of Mary Landrieu, was elected Lt. Gov. and Charles Foti beat Suzie Terrell (who ran against Sen. Landrieu in 2002) for the attorney general's race.

The statewide runoff (for governor and insurance commissioner, which was undecided, will take place on Nov. 15)

[Padraig18]

1. She has a lot of work to do, but...

Yesterday's results prove that LA is still chock full of Democrats, and there's reason to hope that it could become a 'blue state' in 2004. :)

Edit: Typo corrected

[CMT]

2. it is good news

that if you combine all the democratic votes for governor we have over 50%. Now the job will be to get them all to turnout for Blanco.

[mndemocrat_29]

3. That's the most important thing: turnout

Mary Landrieu won because she had much larger turnout, and Mary's great campaigning led us to win in LA-5. I think that if Blanco can duplicate that kind of success, we'll probably take the Insurance Commissioner post.

[jiacinto]

4. She should beat Jindal

Democrats got more votes than Republicans last night.

[amazona]

5. here's another link

This is from the Times Picayune:

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1065338942140970.xml

I hope Blanco can figure out a way to create more excitement than she has so far. I feel she needs to reach out more to African-Americans and to the progressive community. Apparently she is considered weak on environmental issues as well, as she had my birders' group in a stir over some wetlands hoo-hah. Sigh.


I'm hoping that the other Democrats will rally around her and figure out a way for Blanco to get her message across. We don't need another Mike Foster tool in the governor's mansion.


congrats to foti and landrieu

[AP]

6. Jindal has succeeded at everything he has done. Don't underestimate him.

And I'm SURE the Bush administration is going do whatever subterfuge is required to try to get him elected.

[Merusault]

7. Jindal definitely does not have a lock on this race....

If Jindal's extremely socially conservative views (i.e. abortion with absolutely no exceptions, Ten Commandments in public, anti-gun control) gets more coverage than they did in the primary (which they likely will), Blanco will grab the center and win fairly easily.

Jindal might tone down the fundamentalist-like rhetoric now that he already has the right in his corner and needs the middle to win.

I predict Blanco wins: 52-48.

[mndemocrat_29]

8. I'd go about 55-45

In favor of Blanco.

[tedoll78]

9. I'm hoping that..

the David Duke Republicans stay at home, shaving-off 5% (or more) from Jindall's numbers. Sadly, I can see it happening because of his ethnicity.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

10. It's their problem if they want to make ones ethnicity.....

an issue! :eyes:

56%-44% in favor of Kathleen Blanco!!!

[bluestateguy]

11. Could bigotry actually help the Democrats in this race?

A lot of good old boys and Confederate flag wavers, normally Republican, may not want to vote for an Indian candidate with a sparkling resume. They may not identify with him.

[Awsi Dooger]

12. This was always the state I felt best about for '03

Much better than Kentucky or Mississippi, when we started analyzing this stuff back in spring. CA was not even in the dialogue.

But 55-45 or 56-44 are considerably too high, IMO. I don't think Granholm or Rendell matched those gaps, despite polls suggesting much greater and in more friendly states.

With only 3 gov races nationwide, Republican cash, operatives and lies will flood into LA, threatening the bayou much more than any late season hurricane.

[rads]

13. Jindal has lots of money and friends in high places

There's not too much doubt in my mind that Blanco will win, but I have a feeling that this is going to be a very ugly race. I don't think it's going to be a 10+ point margin.