Here is a link to the Louisiana Secretary of State’s web page, showing election returns for U.S. Senate and two U.S. House run-offs. Republicans are winning all three races, as expected.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
Here is a link to the Louisiana Secretary of State’s web page, showing election returns for U.S. Senate and two U.S. House run-offs. Republicans are winning all three races, as expected.
It’s kind of ironic that former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards who helped design the state’s “Open Primary” has become a victim of that design some 40 years later.
That is two congressional races in Louisiana where the incumbent has been ousted this year. Didn’t you use to say that never happens?
Jim Riley:
“That is two congressional races in Louisiana where the incumbent has been ousted this year. Didn’t you use to say that never happens?”
Don’t think I have ever said that, if you were referring to me, Jim.
I may have said that it is hard to defeat an incumbent – and it is – but I don’t think I’ve ever said the above.
I did say that, in 2010, and it was true when I said it. Only one incumbent member of Congress from Louisiana had been defeated 1978 through 2006, years in which Louisiana used top-two. But when Louisiana switched to a semi-closed primary for Congress, starting in 2008, two incumbents were defeated; and then one was defeated again in 2010.
Starting in 2012, Louisiana went back to the modified top-two system in which the first voting for Congress is in November. This form is far, far better than the system used in Washington and California, where no one but Democrats and Republicans have been on the ballot in November for any statewide office since those states have used their system of top-two.
Blatant subversion of the 2 U.S. Code sections about when ELECTION days happen for gerrymander Congress hacks.
Too many ANTI-Democracy devil morons to count.
One incumbent who was defeated in 2008 had only been elected earlier that year with a plurality of the vote. He was defeated in the November election by a plurality winner, in which a candidate who had been defeated in the partisan primary in the special election, ran as an “independent” in the fall.
The other incumbent who was defeated in 2008 was under criminal indictment, and is now in prison. During the investigation, $100,000 in cold cash was seized from his freezer. He lost to a plurality winner in an election delayed by a hurricane.
The winner in 2008 was handily defeated in 2010.
The best conclusion we can reach is that the partisan primary system may produce arbitrary or capricious results and instability.
Imagine if we used a spinner to decide election winners. There would be many more incumbents defeated. But the results would be arbitrary, capricious, and unstable.