Newest special election in La. set to be expensive, pitched GOP battle

Rep. Bobby Jindal’s (R) election as the next governor of Louisiana on Saturday set in motion a sixth special election this cycle, and a crowded field of Republicans is expected to make it an expensive one in the starkly conservative 1st district.

Jindal’s victory in the gubernatorial race hardly comes as a surprise, but with state legislative and local offices up for grabs over the weekend, several potential contenders for his seat have had their hands full with other races or were wary of entering the race until Jindal actually won.

{mosads}They are now expected to make the race as packed and pricey as it was when a special election was held there eight years ago. That year several candidates, including now-Sen. David Vitter (R), spent in excess of $1 million on the race.

State Rep. Steve Scalise, who met with the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) earlier this year and has more than $100,000 left over from an aborted 2004 campaign for the seat, headlines the list of potential contenders.

Others include St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis, state Sen. Tom Schedler, state Rep. Tim Burns and Jefferson Parish Councilman John Young Jr. and his colleague, Tom Capella. Vitter’s chief of staff, Kyle Ruckert, has also been mentioned, as have state Sen. Jim Lentini and attorney Eric Skrmetta.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, a top contender who is well-known for leading the successful prosecution against former Gov. Edwin Edwards (D), ruled out a run recently, opening the race up to a bevy of lesser-known candidates.

Slidell Mayor Ben Morris, who had been the most open about his interest in recent months, was the first to jump into the race following Jindal’s win. His sizeable résumé includes military service in the Middle East, time as a Drug Enforcement Administration officer and 12 years as a chief of police.

“He won, therefore I am interested, and I am going to run,” Morris said.

Burns is likely to enter the race in the coming days, once the dust settles from the state elections.

“Following Bobby’s election as governor, I think the area’s going to need strong leadership to follow in his footsteps,” Burns said.
Others have a harder time jumping headlong into the race.

Scalise was elected to the state Senate for the first time on Saturday and might not want to look too eager to make the next step within days of winning his new job and before being sworn in. But his interest is well-known, and he garnered some good will by yielding to Jindal in the 2004 race.

Similarly, Davis, who was overwhelmingly reelected over the weekend, said it is too early to make that decision.
“I don’t know at this point, in reference to a congressional race or not,” Davis said. “But I guess we’ll look at it and see.”

Schedler, who is term-limited in January, said he is waiting to see whether a potential appointment materializes before making any decisions. He looked at qualifying in 2004 before deciding Jindal would be too hard to beat.

“Hopefully I’ll make a decision in the next several weeks,” he said.

Ruckert’s candidacy could pose an interesting dynamic in light of Vitter’s implication in an alleged Washington prostitution ring.
Vitter and Jindal have long supported each other, and Ruckert’s wife is Jindal’s chief of staff, but with the revelations about Vitter coming to light amid Jindal’s campaign launch earlier this year, local observers say the events created a rift between the two.

State Republican Party Chairman Roger Villere said that he fully expects the GOP contest to go to a runoff.

He noted that candidates from the North Shore area of the district above Lake Pontchartrain, including Morris and Davis, could be helped by a population shift after Hurricane Katrina. The South Shore, which has dominated the district’s representation in the House, will now face a growing North Shore bent on electing a congressman of its own.

Villere said that Scalise is helped by his relationship with the business community and that Skrmetta is personally wealthy and could finance a bid.

The last hotly contested race in the district came in 1999, after Speaker-designate Bob Livingston (R-La.) resigned.
“They all have the ability to raise a lot of money and have a lot of influence,” Villere said. “I think any of them could be a real strong candidate.”

NRCC spokesman Ken Spain said, “Louisiana’s 1st district is a Republican stronghold with a deep bench of prospective candidates.”

The race will be the first time a member of Congress from Louisiana will be chosen under the newly instituted closed primary system. Parties will hold primaries and, if necessary, primary runoffs before the party nominees square off.

Under the old system, which is still in place for state and local races, the state holds a nonpartisan primary and a runoff if nobody gets 50 percent of the vote.

One Democrat, professor Gilda Reed, has already entered the race, but national Democrats aren’t very concerned with the district, where Republicans routinely win three-fourths or more of the vote.

The contest will be a race to the right in what is Louisiana’s most conservative district, said Pearson Cross, a political science professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

“It’s just a dead-solid white, professional, conservative, Christian district,” Cross said. “It’s skewed in favor of young, appealing, Republican-right candidates. There’s no counterbalance there. There’s nothing to keep them moderate at all.”

In 2004, President Bush attracted 71 percent of the vote in Jindal’s district

Should Jindal resign his House seat shortly before taking office in Baton Rouge in January, as many expect, he will have the power to set the date for the special election. Should he resign before then, outgoing Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) could set the date.

State law only requires that a special election be set and doesn’t require it to be set for a certain date or within a time frame.

Jacques Berry, a spokesman for the Louisiana secretary of State, said it would be most convenient to hold the primary on March 8, when municipal general elections are held. He said the Feb. 9 presidential primary date would likely be too early if Jindal waits until January to resign.

Jindal’s office did not respond to requests for comment.