Even federal judges sometimes make mistakes. I came across this piece which lists some errors that district Judge Allen Pepper made in the open primary suit, Mississippi Democratic Party v. Barbour.

Shucks, on very rare occasions, even people from Texas make minor mistakes.

The SOS website has election schedules for several past years. Prior to Foster v Love they list a “Congressional Primary” and a “Congressional General”. After that it is “Congressional Election” and “Congressional Runoff”.

For 2010 they have “First Party Primary”, “Open Primary/Second Party Primary” and “Open General/Congressional General”.

While Louisiana conducts most state elections in odd years, they do have some non-federal elections in even years, which are conducted using an open primary on the same date as the half-semiclosed second party primary.

This year have a pair of special elections to fill House vacancies. The primary election is May 1. The general election is May 29. The general elections of course might be cancelled.

As the three-judge federal panel quoted in Evers v. State Board of Election Commissioners (1971), the Louisiana system is a two-step general election. The main difference between its first round and other general elections is that the field of candidates has not been winnowed by party primaries or some other nominating process.

A congressional “primary” on federal general election day… amazing!!

The 2002 US Senate runoff between Mary Landrieu (D) and Suzanne Terrell (R) was held on Saturday, December 7.

Louisiana refers to their two stages as the gubernatorial primary and gubernatorial general election. The primary is the 2nd to last Saturday in October in an election year. The general election is 4 Saturdays later. The election year is every 4th year beginning from 1983.

While it does hold its state elections in November, they are neither on a Tuesday nor towards the beginning of the month.

Under current law, the congressional first primary is in the first Saturday in September, the congressional second primary is the first Saturday in October, and the general election is on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

Because the congressional elections are conducted under a unique system (for Louisiana) there is a ton of language defining their conduct.

HB 292 would set the congressional primary for the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

The congressional general election is the first Saturday in December.

Because the congressional primary and general election are conducted using the same rules as other partisan elections, a lot of special language can be eliminated. The differences are mainly related to the dates of the elections.

I’m sure that Richard Winger’s analysis includes much more than gubernatorial and U. S. House results.

It should be noted that the Democrat Cazayoux was hurt by the presence of a black independent candidate in 2008. Did the Republican Cassidy win that race with 50%-plus?

Mississippians cherish congressional seniority, so it’s really tough to dislodge an incumbent.

U. S. Rep. Web Franklin (R) lost to Mike Espy (D) in 1986. Black precincts kept being added to that district until it was impossible for a white Republican to be elected (that’s the seat now held by Comrade Bennie Thompson).

Rep. Ronnie Shows (D) lost to Rep. Chip Pickering (R) in 2002. Redistricting placed them in the same district.

Before the blacks wised up and started working almost totally in the Democratic Party, black independents helped Republicans to win a number of races.

In a 1972 US House race, there was a black independent from the Democratic nominee’s home county. Thad Cochran (R) won with 47.9%, with the independent getting a critical 8.2%. Cochran, who benefitted from President Nixon’s coattails, only carried two counties (he had intended to run as a Democrat, until the Republican leaders approached him).

Cochran, who has led a charmed life, was elected US senator in 1978 with 45.0%. The Democrat got 31.8%; Charles Evers, a black independent, got 22.9%; and another black independent got 0.3%.

In 1980, US Rep. Jon Hinson (R) was re-elected with 39%. The black independent ran second, and the Democrat was third.

The last time a Mississippi US senator was beaten was in 1942. Jim Eastland defeated the senator who had won the special election in 1941.

Mississippi, incidentally, has never attempted to impose the “top two open primary” for its congressional elections. All five of the “open primary” bills passed between 1966 and 1979 were for our state and local elections only.

Of the 9 elections held under Top 2, there were two instances where the governor was term-limited (1979 Edwards, 2003 Foster). So even though a new governor was elected, it can not be attributed to the Open Primary.

Of the remaining 7, in three cases, the incumbent was defeated. If a candidate finishes 2nd and then withdraws because he knew he would be beaten in the runoff, I classify it as a defeat. So 1987, is no different than 1983, when Treen finished 2nd, but Edwards had a majority; or 1991, when Roemer finished 3rd.

I think it is fair to say that in 1995 (Edwards) and 2003 (Blanco), that a high probability of defeat was a factor in the decision not to seek re-election. Do you agree?

Richard Winger has said that the incumbent almost always wins under Top 2. It certainly is not true with regard to the governorship. 2/7 is a very poor approximation of “almost always”.

It is true for the congressional elections. I think there have only been 3 cases where an incumbent was defeated.

In 1980 Buddy Roemer defeated Buddy Leach. In the inaugural Open Primary, the seat was open after Joe D. Waggonner had retired after 9 terms. Leach finished 1st, Republican Jimmy Wilson was 2nd, and Roemer was 3rd. Leach narrowly (266 votes) defeated Wilson in the runoff. 23 persons pleaded guilty to vote buying, and 2 more were convicted. The House on a party-line vote later decided that 66 votes had been bought, and kept Leach in office, though he was tainted.

In 1980, Leach, Wilson, and Roemer ran again, but this time Roemer finished 2nd. He defeated Leach in the runoff by 62-36.

The other two instances were both in 1992, and were due to pairing of representatives following redistricting. Louisiana had lost its 8th representative, and that election had seen the creation of the Mark-of-Zorro district, so in effect 8 incumbents were forced into 6 districts. When the Mark of Zorro district was eliminated, Cleo Fields did not seek re-election.

In 2008, two incumbents were defeated using the party primary system. William Jefferson was defeated due to a combination of corruption charges, and Hurricane Gustav delaying the general election until December.

Don Cazayoux had only been in office 6 months after narrowly winning a special election in May so had not had the opportunity to develop a strong incumbency. I don’t really think you can attribute either of these elections to the use of party primaries.

How many incumbent members of Congress have been defeated in Mississippi over the last 30 years?

In almost every system of party primaries, in contrast, 50%-plus is NOT required to win the general election. Furthermore, in such a system, (1) all independents who qualify are guaranteed a place on the general election ballot, and (2) all qualified parties are empowered to have a candidate in the general election.

A candidate cannot be elected to office unless he or she first makes it to the final election ballot.

Three other states have elected Independent Governors in recent years and all of them use party primaries.

As for the non-duopoly candidates that made it past the Top Two primary in Washington, they all have something in common: They did it by default. There was only one major party candidate that ran in the primary. Other states have easily done better in getting non-duopoly legislative candidates on the November ballot.

The 2004 election is most directly comparable to 2008 in Washington. There were third party candidates on the November ballot in every statewide partisan race in 2004 and none in 2008. There were third party candidates on the November ballot in four of the nine House of Representatives races in 2004 and none in 2008.

Gov. Edwin Edwards was term-limited in 1979. He had been re-elected in 1975, the first year that the state used the “open primary.” Edwards was first elected in 1972, when the state was still using party primaries.

In 1987, Gov. Edwards, who had already been tried for fraud, finished second in the first round. He then declined a runoff, enabling Buddy Roemer to become governor after getting just 33% of the vote.

Both Edwards and Roemer were then Democrats.

Gov. Roemer (1) got divorced and (2) flip-flopped on the abortion issue, both damaging in heavily Catholic Louisiana. He switched to the Republicans in March 1991.

In 1991, the first President Bush and the national Republicans endorsed Roemer, while the state Republican Party backed Congressman Clyde Holloway. Roemer finished third and Holloway fourth.

The runoff was between Edwards and David Duke, ex-Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. A crook versus a sheet-head! (Edwards, a notorious womanizer, remarked that he and Duke were both “wizards under the sheets.”)

Bush, Roemer, and the Republican leadership supported the Democrat Edwards over the Republican Duke. With the eyes of the nation on them, many Louisianans held their noses and voted for Edwards, who won with 61 percent.