Well, well. With the qualifying period for state and federal elections beginning today, the GOP has finally caught a break in Louisiana this year, as unpopular Republican Woody Jenkins is pulling out of the November election against recently-elected Democratic Rep. Don Cazayoux:
“It’s a very critical time in America and very important that our party unifies,” Jenkins said. “It’s probably the only way we’re going to win.” […]
Jenkins said he felt as though he had the support to win the fall primary election. But the campaign would be a costly strain on either Republican candidate and would negatively effect their run in the general election.
“And I don’t want to take that chance,” Jenkins said. “Because of the district and the type of race this is, unity is at a premium. We just can’t afford any fighting among ourselves.”
Another retread loser, lobbyist and businesswoman Laurinda Calongne, also pulled out of the race late last month.
In their place, Republicans are running state Sen. Bill Cassidy, who, simply by virtue of actually holding an elected office, is a big step up from Jenkins or Calongne.
The biggest unanswered question for the time being remains the fate of Democratic state Rep. Michael Jackson, who vowed to run as an independent in November after he lost his primary bid to Cazayoux in April. The filing deadline passes this Friday, so we’ll have an answer soon.
I don’t know much about Bill Cassidy
But I’m sure he isn’t such a polarizing candidate as Woody Jenkins making this race more competitive, especially with McCain probably pulling off a good win here on the top of the ballot.
Also in the news, CQ boosted Dan Maffei in NY-26. No Clear Favorite to Leans Democratic.
That a candidate DROPPING OUT is good news for your party! You have to be scraping the bottom of the barrel which holds all the scrapings from the bottoms of all the other barrels for (heh, gonna mix a metaphor!) this particular glass to look anywhere near half-full.
This seat will be extremely hard to hold regardless of whom the rpeubs nominate if Jackson runs as an independent. In fact it may be harder to hold than TX-22 if Jackson screws things up for us.
many unsatisfied state CBC legislators. With getting Don Cravins to run, and asking Rick Gallot to run. In addition, none of the areas black politicians wanted Jackson to run as an independant. Baton Rouge’s mayor, and several city councilmen and state legislators have all come behind Cazayoux. Lydia Jackson is not running in LA-04, she’s too much of a party player, she’s pretty much the matriarch of the Caddo Parish Democratic Party, and she’s worked with Paul Carmouche for years, and I’m sure she wouldn’t play spoiler as an independant, she might run in the primary, but not as an independant, hopefully Jackson can be convinced just to run in the party primary.