Democratic Congressman Charlie Melancon also has a Primary race to contend with, though little is known about his two primary challengers – Neeson Chauvin, Jr. of Carencro and Cary Deaton of Metairie. Melancon should have little problem besting these two, and actually this is a good turn of events in that it gives a chance for voters to press the button for him and for him to focus on his race this November. Libertarians also have a primary as perennial candidate Anthony Gentile is running along with Randal Hayes of Atlanta LA. Speaking of November, no less than 9 candidates will be on the ballot as “no party” or “other” candidates along with the primary winners from the Democratic, Republican and Libertarian parties. Should be interesting. In the Congressional races No primary in the 1st Congressional district. Congressman Steve Scalise will be taking on Democrat Myron Katz of New Orleans and “other party” candidate Arden Wells on Ponchatoula. Given that this is arguably the most conservative district in our state, Scalise will likely skate right into re-election. 2nd Congressional District is a bit more interesting. Two leading state legislators on the Democratic side will be duking it out on the Democratic side (along with two lesser known D’s). With this district so overwhelmingly Democratic the winner of this primary will have a definite edge. State Rep Juan LaFonta definitely a progressive sweetheart with a long and deep connection to New Orleans and State Rep Cedric Richmond both see their wins as possible. My hope is though that we don’t see a complete and total Democratic Blood Bath so that whoever escapes the primary is so “bloodied” that come November they are too wounded to fight Congressman Cao. Speaking of Cao, he does have a primary challenger but will easily best Billiot at the ballot box. The winners of the Party primaries will face off against 3 other candidates of No or “other” party affiliation in the general, none of which seem to be any threat. The real question here is – will the Democrat who emerges from the Primary be able to unite the Democratic Base behind him or – like two years ago – will we have a fractured base of Democrats who are carrying too big of a grudge to vote for the victor? Hope you guys keep it clean down there and REMEMBER NOVEMBER. The 3rd Congressional District, political newcomer Ravi Sangisetty will be free from a Primary Challenge and be able to continue to raise money (a fact here that he has outraised all of his Republican challengers combined, mind you) while the Republicans duke it out. Hunt Downer from Houma and Jeff Landry of New Iberia appear to be the leads here on the Republican side and splitting the district – one has a lot of party support and the other has a lot of business support. This will be interesting and a race to watch. Come November this will be a heads-up race between the Republican victor and Democrat Sangisetty. The 4th Congressional District – an interesting turn of events – Rev. David Melville has gotten into the race on the Democratic side and appears to be working hard. He has already raised a decent amount of money and while he will be facing Steven Gavi of Bossier City in the primary, he likely will win. The real issue will be in November when the victor of the Democratic primary will face off against freshman Republican incumbent John Fleming and former Democrat turned “other” party candidate Rev Dr. Artis Cash. With Cash being in the race, he may act as a spoiler in the race for the Democrat likely to pull a decent number of African American voters thus allowing Fleming to a second term. Fleming, you may recall, won his seat in one heck of a squeaker election that I spoke about several weeks ago in this column. The 5th Congressional District – regretfully the Democratic Party couldn’t find anyone to run in this race so there will be no democrat on the ballot at all. Republican incumbent and former Democrat Rodney Alexander is facing Todd Slavant in their party primary and whoever (read Alexander) comes out of this race will face one “other” party member in the general. The 6th Congressional District – No primaries here at all. Republican incumbent Bill Cassidy will face off against little known Merritt McDonald, Sr. – a Democrat. McDonald appears to have run for other offices before but hasn’t been elected. The 7th Congressional District – well that is just an embarrassment. Dr. Charles Boustany will be skating in to yet another term in the congress, this time without even one challenger. |
