For the first time in over two decades, there was a competitive general election for this Congressional seat, thanks to the retirement of out-going Republican Rep. Jim McCrery. The Democratic candidate in this race, Paul Carmouche, traded on the goodwill his service in Caddo Parish as their District Attorney for the past three decades to make it a competitive race.
One of the smart things done by his campaign was to highlight his law and order credentials, and remind folks that he's been the District Attorney for most of their lives. Not a week went by during his campaign that my inbox did not have an email announcing an endorsement from one of Louisiana's District Attorneys or Sheriffs.
However, it baffles me that so many Louisiana Democrats feel the need to run a "Republican-lite" campaign. If voters are given a choice between a Republican-lite candidate and a Republican, they'll choose the Republican every single time. Yet, Mr. Carmouche felt the need to run such a campaign.
Most of the literature, as well as two of the three ads from his campaign that I know of, have some variation of "Louisiana values" mentioned, usually pro-life and pro-gun. Those are fine values to hold. But when you're running as a Democrat, even here in Louisiana, you want to ensure that Democrats get out and vote.
Most Democrats I know in this state want to hear about how you're going to help bridge the ever-increasing income gap between the rich and the rest of us. They want to hear about your ideas to keep their children in Louisiana once they finish high school and/or college. They want to hear about your ideas to improve education.
I have no doubt that Mr. Carmouche told voters these things in person. But he can only meet so many voters. These things NEED to be mentioned on the air, whether it's radio or television. These things need to be mentioned in mailers to voters. And I didn't see that.
But what really galls me about this race is a mailer sent out before the general election:
Take a look at the upper right corner ... pro-family = traditonal marriage? Seriously?!
What really bothers me, and many others, is why the Democratic State Central Committee (DSCC) allowed their mail permit to be used for this mailer. After the palm card debacle in 2004 that didn't include State Senator Don Cravins Sr's name, which led to the black community largely staying home in the December run-off between State Senator Willie Landry Mount and eventual winner Charles Boustany, one would think that the DSCC would be much, much more careful as to what they were paying for, or what their name was going on. Apparently not.
Gay marriage was NOT an issue in this campaign. And yet, for some reason, it's in the mailer sent out on behalf of the Carmouche campaign. When contacted by LGBT groups in Louisiana and Shreveport about the mailer, Mr. Carmouche refused to meet with them, or even return their phone calls.
Why I am making such a big deal out of this? Well, for one, who cares if two men or two women choose to spend their lives together? And if they do, they deserve the same rights that heterosexual couples enjoy ... like inheriting Social Security payments, visiting their loved one in the hospital, and some 1300 other rights that are automatically granted to heterosexual couples once they say "I do." They deserve it not only because it's the right thing to do, but also because the Constitution states that all are equal in the eyes of the law. Gay couples sure ain't equal to heterosexual couples under the laws of this nation.
On top of that, when in the world did being in favor of marriage between a man and a woman equal being "pro-family?" Families come in many forms ... some by blood, and some by choice. I know people who consider their friends to be more of a family to them than their blood relations. And while I'm on the topic, what is so pro-family about disowning a child because they are gay?
Back to the election in LA-04, there's an LGBT group called PACE up in Shreveport. They have over 200+ members. And I'm certain that there are more LGBT folks than that in LA-04. After they got that mailer, do you think they were enthusiastic about voting for Mr. Carmouche? I think not.
But even more galling is the fact that Mr. Carmouche refused to meet with LGBT groups that asked for a meeting, and even refused to return phone calls to them! How much time does a phone call take? A simple phone call could have won this election for Mr. Carmouche. What makes me say that?
"Of more than 92,000 votes cast throughout the 13 parishes of this district, it appears that our campaign has fallen slightly short. I will not ask for a recount of any of the paper ballots, and I offer my warmest congratulations to Dr. Fleming.
"Over the past 10 months, I enjoyed getting out every day and
listening to and talking to the people of this area. It has been the highest honor to serve as the Caddo Parish District Attorney for the past three decades and I look forward to exploring ways in which I may be of continued service to this great community.
I'll have a post-mortem on this race in a bit. It'll be explosive, I can promise you that.
Congratulations to Mr. Fleming ... hopefully, he won't marginalize himself by introducing his insane 23% sales tax idea as a bill in Congress.
Despite being down by 356 votes after Saturday's electronic voting, Democratic candidate Paul Carmouche has not conceded the election. He told Shreveport's KTBS Saturday night:
Carmouche said he wants to see what happens when voting machines are rechecked on Tuesday. He said he also wanted to make sure that all provisional ballots -- paper ballots cast when there is a problem at a polling place -- have been counted.
So, keep your powder dry folks ... this thing ain't over yet.
One more point ... there is a discrepancy between the text-based site and the flash-based site, both run by the Secretary of State's office, in terms of the % of the precincts reporting. The text-based site is reporting 100% as of 11:21 PM CST, but the flash-based site is only reporting 95% as of 11:22 PM CST. Which is it, Mr. Secretary?
Although the Secretary of State is reporting that Fleming (R) has 356 more votes tonight in the unofficial tallies of electronic and absentee voting. Might it be provisional ballots? What's causing the AP to hold back?
Aight, we've got 640 precincts in this district ... it's a large district, roughly the size of the entire state of Rhode Island, methinks. With 640 of 640 precincts in:
Candidate
Votes
% of Vote
Paul Carmouche (D)
44,141
47.69%
John Fleming (R)
44,497
48.07%
It's down to Bossier Parish, y'all ... a traditionally GOP parish. Folks, this one is gonna get REALLY REALLY REALLY close. All precincts in save for 37 from Bossier Parish.
The numbers are not going to add up to 100% because there are two minor party candidates that will only take roughly 3-4% of the vote at the most. My guess is they'll combine for 2% when it's all in.
UPDATE: Just got an email reminding me that the DCCC virtual phonebank is still up and running. The polls below show that it's anybody's game. Every single vote will count, and if you don't believe it, just ask Al Franken in Minnesota. If you have 15 minutes, you can do this ... just click here for the DCCC virtual phonebank.
The citizens of LA-04 are voting in the last truly contested election of the 2008 election cycle. The polls of this race have been all over the map: (hat tip to swingstateproject for the polls)
The Kitchens Group (11/18-19, likely voters, 11/6-7 in parens):
Paul Carmouche (D): 48 (45)
John Fleming (R): 37 (35)
Undecided: 13 (16)
(MoE: ±4.0%)
SurveyUSA for Roll Call (11/17-18, likely voters):
Paul Carmouche (D): 45
John Fleming (R): 47
(MoE: ±3.9%)
Public Opinion Strategies for John Fleming (11/17-18, likely voters):
Paul Carmouche (D): 42
John Fleming (R): 43
(MoE: ±4.9%)
That's Paul Carmouche on the right giving an interview to a lonely (and cold) cameraman from one of Shreveport's local news channels.
This race is going to hinge on the turnout. The DCCC has been active ... sending folks to the district, and utilizing their volunteer base to remind folks to vote. President-elect Obama has been less involved, cutting a radio ad to remind folks to vote, but his campaign team did send out two or three emails for funds and volunteers.
Turnout, according to various sources, has been "leisurely." I'm guessing that means it's not nearly as high as the turnout on Election Day. Check back here tonight for the live-blogging of the results, as the SoS website has a tendency to crash under the weight of interested partisans wanting to know what's happening.
This morning, the jobless report came out from the Department of Labor ... businesses have shed 533,000 jobs in the last month. It's the worst one month loss of jobs in 35 years. For the entire year, it's one million nine hundred and sixty-three thousand jobs lost. 1,963,000.
Here's Democratic candidate Paul Carmouche's response to the numbers:
"Today we learned that the monthly jobless numbers are the worst in 35 years. The unemployment rate jumped to 6.5 percent and our economy lost 533,000 jobs. We did not need these numbers to confirm what we already know: Main Street is hurting badly. In Congress, my number one priority will be to do what's right to get our economy moving again, to ensure that we bring good jobs to the area, and to protect your taxpayer dollars.
What's Fleming's proposal - cut taxes even more? What good will that do for folks not working? Put Social Security in the stock market? Yeah, I really like the idea of rewarding the Wall Street with the money in our safety net ... when they've already brought us to the brink of the Great Depression 2.0.
It's going to take a massive infrastructure spending program to get our nation back up and running again ... something along the lines of FDR's WPA program. And John Fleming won't be there to help out ... he'll align himself with the neo-Hooverites in the GOP who see their salvation in the ruin of the Obama Administration.
We need Carmouche. And you can help remind folks to vote through the DCCC's virtual phonebank. It's easy, and you have to sign up, but after that, it's a breeze. And 30 minutes of phone calls will go a LONG way to ensuring a victory on Saturday night.
President-elect Obama has been busy putting together his Cabinet over the last few weeks. But he still found the time to cut a radio ad and an automated call for Democratic candidate Paul Carmouche. The ad went up today, and the calls will likely go out in the next few days, in advance of Saturday's election.
Here's the text of the radio ad:
This is Barack Obama.
Together we made history, but there is still one more important election in Louisiana on Saturday, December 6th.
Democrat Paul Carmouche is running for Congress.
To change America and to get Louisiana's economy back on track - I need leaders like Paul Carmouche working with me in Washington. Let me tell you about Paul Carmouche. Paul is an effective and fair district attorney...who stood up for the victims of violent crime...Paul supports tax relief for the middle class and will work with me to create jobs and get Louisiana's economy moving.
Paul Carmouche is the kind of leader we need in Washington...to make a difference for the people of Northwest Louisiana.
On Saturday, December 6th please support Democrat Paul Carmouche.
This is good news for the Carmouche campaign, but I wouldn't get complacent. This is a district that has been Republican since 1988.* Mr. Carmouche needs all the help he can get ... so if you have the cash, click on the icon on the right to donate. Remember, Dick Cheney is making his last stand in LA-04 tomorrow morning. Help Mr. Carmouche put this election away if you can afford to help. Even $5 goes a long way.
-------------------
* Although one can argue that this district hasn't been represented by a Democrat since 1980, as former Gov. Buddy Roemer represented this district from 1980 to 1987. I've met Mr. Roemer, and he is among the most tone-deaf people I have ever met, as I wanted to discuss politics and education in Louisiana with him, and he was more interested in selling me his latest business venture.
The Shreveport Times informs us all that Vice-President Dick Cheney will be making his last stand at a fundraiser for Republican hopeful John Fleming on Friday.
Fleming asks the citizens of LA-04 to shell out $10,000 to have their pictures taken with DarthVice President Cheney.
This tells us all what kind of Congressman that John Fleming plans to be - one that will be a values voter ... and then, on the economic issues, do whatever the Republican leadership tells him to do.
He's already started down that track by doing what his consultants told him to do - toe the Republican line on Social Security - let's allow folks to put their payroll taxes in the stock market - to win the primary, and then muddle the waters by putting up an ad claiming that you're going to keep Social Security out of the stock market during the general election. That's not honest leadership ... that's misleading the voters.
The Democratic candidate, Paul Carmouche, is a Louisiana Democrat, which means on the cultural hot-button issues, he's not going to be voting the way, say, Speaker Pelosi would. But on the economic issues, he stands with us:
Paul will end corporate welfare for companies that are shipping good paying American jobs overseas.
Paul opposes higher taxes and new taxes, especially for the middle class and small businesses. The wealthy and big corporations that move American jobs overseas should pay more of their fair share.
Paul will look for opportunities to make the tax system fairer for working people, the middle class and small businesses.
Help Mr. Carmouche counter the hundreds of thousands that Cheney will raise for Republican wingnut John Fleming!
UPDATE: The Carmouche campaign has invited the public to join Mr. Carmouche for coffee and donuts on Thursday morning to discuss their concerns. The meeting is at the Carmouche HQ - 4847 Line Ave. in Shreveport on Thursday morning starting at 8:30 AM. The first 25 people through the door will receive a rubber duck to symbolize the Vice=President's status as a lame duck.
Yesterday, we brought you this video of Fleming speaking to seniors about Social Security on October 1st:
Well, apparently Mr. Fleming either flipped his position, or he's lying to the voters of LA-04, because he's running this ad in which he states that he will work to, wait for it ... "keep social security out of the stock market":
Republican candidate John Fleming announces that he is in favor of privatizing Social Security:
I find his position incredible, especially since Social Security disability payments and survivor's benefits saved his family when he was a high school senior and attending college. Apparently, his mother got hurt on the job, and his dad passed away from a heart attack months before John's graduation from high school. From his bio on his website:
"Things were tough financially. It would take a while for my dad's Social Security survivor's checks to start coming and for funds from his life insurance policy to arrive. All we had was a small check from my mother's disability.
Mr. Fleming, you claim you haven't forgotten where you came from. If that is the case, why would you advocate putting Social Security benefits in the stock market? The stock market is not always rising ... matter of fact, it's dropped near 3000 points in the last two months, which has caused many people to lose a good chunk of their retirement funds that they were counting on.
Social Security is, was, and always should be a safety net for the American people. Putting it in the stock market will take away that safety net ... and put folks on a high wire ... trying to determine the best time to cash out, thereby make some folks winners and some folks losers. And no matter what, among the winners will always be banks and financial institutions that administer the mutual funds. That was never the intention of framers of Social Security ... it was intended to ensure a basic standard of living for folks after a lifetime of working.
This approach to politics is what earned Mr. Carmouche the Shreveport Times endorsement (pdf alert) for the Democratic nomination in the LA-04 race to replace retiring Rep. Jim McCrery way back in August, when the party primaries were going to be held in September.
Mr. Carmouche has also racked up quite an impressive list of endorsements from fellow District Attorneys from the 4th Congressional District, as well as from around the state:
2nd Judicial District D.A. Walter May
Allen Parish D.A. Doug Hebert, Jr
Beauregard Parish D.A. David Burton
Grant Parish D.A. Jay Lemoine
Natchitoches Parish D.A. Van Kyzar
Red River Parish D.A. Bill Jones
3rd Judicial District D.A. Robert Levy
15th Judicial District D.A. Michael Harson
16th Judicial District D.A. Phil Haney
Avoyelles Parish D.A. Charles Riddle
Jefferson Parish D.A. Paul Connick, Jr.
Rapides Parish D.A. James "Jams" Downs
Terrebonne Parish D.A. Joseph Waitz
Winn Parish D.A. R. Chris Nevils
In addition to his fellow District Attorneys, Mr. Carmouche has received the endorsement of the Shreveport Firefighters Association Local 514, and State Rep. Michael Danahay (D-Beauregard Parish).
As the race heats up over the next two months ... yeah, I said two months, as it is increasingly unlikely that the Republican primary will be won outright by any of the three nattering nabobs of negativity running for that nomination. That means one more month of negativity flowing freely from the Republicans prior to a December general election.
Paul Carmouche released his first ad of the campaign ... a 60 second biographical piece to introduce himself to the voters outside of Caddo Parish, where's he been the District Attorney since 1978:
A poll done by the Kitchens Group, conducted between July 16-21, 2008 in LA-04 shows Democratic candidate Paul Carmouche with "commanding leads" ranging from 13 to 19 percent against all three GOPers - Chris Gorman, John Fleming, and Jeff Thompson - in head to head matchups.
That's all good and fine, but I wouldn't put too much stock into this poll for one reason - it's all based on name recognition. The Kitchens Group was nice enough to give us the name recognition #'s via The Reduct Box, but not the head to head #'s:
Paul Carmouche: 60%
Chris Gorman: 41%
John Fleming: 46%
Jeff Thompson: 33%
The name id #'s jibe with the poll released by Mr. Fleming last week on the Republican primary to be held on September 6th:
John Fleming: 43%
Chris Gorman: 17%
Jeff Thompson: 15% Undecided: 25%
So far, outgoing Rep. McCrery's endorsement of Thompson is NOT helping him over the finish line. Then again, there are some 32 days to turn it around. Expect the fight on the GOP side to get nasty as hall in the next few weeks, as there will be a run-off between the top two finishers if no one gets over 50% on September 6th.
Mr. Thompson is the candidate that has been endorsed by the outgoing Congressman McCrery, which makes him a strong candidate, despite trailing in the money race thus far. All three men's debts are largely due to their personal wealth, with the exception of Gorman, who owes some $4,826.38 to various vendors.
Artis "Doc" Cash has not filed an FEC report at this time. The two Democrats with debts owe them to themselves ... as they donated personal funds to their campaigns. The frontrunner, Paul Carmouche, raised more money than any of the Republican candidates in the last quarter, AND he understands the virtues of fiscal responsibility ... he has no debts. Mr. Carmouche must be considered to be the front-runner for the Democratic nomination. It remains to be seen if he will win the seat in Congress ... that will be up to us ... to make sure that we register every single eligible voter to put Mr. Carmouche over the top.
LA-05
No need to publicize RepTraitor Alexander's fundraising #'s as he does not have a Democratic opponent. There is a real conservative running against him in the primary, but who knows if he'll get any support from the folks he needs in a race like this - Club for Growth. Stay tuned.
LA-06
The field is set ... it's going to be a fight until November. Here are the fundraising reports:
Well, Jackson's got himself in a hole. Don't be surprised if he raises less than $50,000 for the entire campaign. He can't win this one, no matter who he can convince otherwise. His campaign is being encouraged by former Rep. Richard Baker, in an attempt to take black voters away from Don Cazayoux. It's the only way Cassidy can win this thing ... limit the number of black voters voting for Cazayoux, especially in East Baton Rouge parish, and attempt to run up the score in Ascension and Livingston parishes enough to overcome Don's advantage in Pointe Coupee, West Feliciana, East Feliciana, St Helana, Iberville and West Baton Rouge parishes.
It remains to be seen if this tactic will be effective. Stay tuned.
Interesting ... for an incumbent to burning through nearly $400k - $398,546 to be exact - in 6 fundraising quarters is not a good thing. Perhaps Boustany got a tad overconfident about being re-elected by acclamation like Melancon did over in LA-03.
What many national prognosticators don't realize about LA-07 is that it is a DEMOCRATIC district. If you take a look at the last time a Presidential election was held in Louisiana was 4 years ago, with President Bush driving turnout throughout the state. The 3 Democrats running in LA-07 that year - Cravins, Sr., Carriere, and Mount - received 141,645 votes to the 132,107 votes of the two GOPers running in the jungle primary - Boustany and Thibodeaux. Further, in the Senate race, then-Congressman Chris John actually won the 7th over Vitter - 126,016 to 125,597.
There will be no gay marriage bashing on the ballot to help drive turnout for the GOP. Nor will President Bush be driving turnout. Instead, the Democrats have to ensure that having Senator Obama and State Senator Cravins, Jr. on the ballot in the 7th turns out black voters like never before ... but it will take an efficient, kick-ass field operation in the 7th. Whether it will be done remains to be seen.
The folks that qualified yesterday AND Wednesday are in green text, unless they have are a Democrat AND have a website that I can find. If they are Repewblicans, then they have no linky to their site. This is a progressive website, and there is no need to link to those we are trying to defeat. The folks that qualified today are in black. So, without further adieu:
Senator Landrieu is currently on her "Winning for Louisiana." There will be events in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Shreveport, Monroe, Alexandria, Lake Charles and New Orleans over the weekend. The New Orleans stop will be the final one, and that is being held at the Basin Street Station in New Orleans. You find out about the rest of the stops in the Events Box up in the right corner.
The field you see up there will likely be who is on the ballot come November, as Mr. Stewart is running as an Independent, and will appear on the November ballot. The entrance will likely make things very difficult for the former Democrat turned Republican who now says party labels are irrelevant. I say that because Mr. Fontanesi is a Libertarian and will likely earn votes otherwise intended for the Republican nominee.
LA-01
Jim Harlan, Democrat
M.V. "Vinny" Mendoza, Democrat
Steve Scalise, Republican
James Carter, Democrat Troy "C" Carter, Democrat
William Jefferson, Democrat
Byron L. Lee, Democrat
Helena Moreno, Democrat Cedric Richmond, Democrat
Malik Rahim, Green Party
Kenya J.H. Smith, Democrat
"Jerry" Jacobs, No Party
Anh "Joseph" Cao, Republican
This is likely to remain in Democratic hands, no matter the outcome of the Democratic primary. The real fight here will be on September 6th.
Charlie won his re-election by acclamation. That's more money that can go to Don Cazayoux, Don Cravins, Jr., Jim Harlan, Mary Landrieu, and whomever comes out of the Democratic primaries in LA-02 and LA-04.
John Fleming, Republican
Chris Gorman, Republican
Jeff Thompson, Republican
Chester T. "Catfish" Kelley, No Party
Gerard J. Bowen, Jr., Other
So we'll see one Democrat and one GOPer on the November ballot in the 4th along with Mr. Kelley and Mr. Bowen.
LA-05
Rodney Alexander, Republican
A Republican has stepped forward to take on the traitor ... his name is:
Andrew Clack, Republican
No Democrat emerged to take on the traitor. Oh, well. This race will be decided on September 6th. My guess is that the traitor will win handily, but what do I know about GOP politics?
Michael Jackson, No Party
As far as I am concerned, the Democrats in the State House ought to dump Mr. Jackson. Let him run as an Independent from here on out. Party rules require Democrats to support the Democratic nominee in general elections, and Mr. Jackson is blatantly dissing that rule. Come on EBR Democrats, show Mr. Jackson that you've got a spine!
LA-07
Don Cravins, Jr., Democrat
Charles Boustany, Republican
Peter Vidrine, Other
The folks that qualified yesterday are in green text, unless they have are a Democrat AND have a website that I can find. If they are Repewblicans, then they have no linky to their site. This is a progressive website, and there is no need to link to those we are trying to defeat. The folks that qualified today are in black. So, without further adieu:
Senator Landrieu plans to qualify on Friday morning, after which she will kick off her "Winning for Louisiana" tour with stops in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Shreveport, Monroe, Alexandria, Lake Charles and New Orleans over the weekend.
John Neely Kennedy kicked off his "Nonsense on a Bus" tour through the state, and will apparently qualify tomorrow.
LA-01
Jim Harlan, Democrat
Steve Scalise, Republican
M.V. "Vinny" Mendoza, Democrat
James Carter, Democrat Troy "C" Carter, Democrat
William Jefferson, Democrat
Byron L. Lee, Democrat
Helena Moreno, Democrat Cedric Richmond, Democrat
Malik Rahim, Green Party
Kenya J.H. Smith, Democrat
"Jerry" Jacobs, No Party
Kenya Smith's filing leaves State Senator Cheryl Gray as the lone Democrat still considering the race. The two Republicans I mentioned yesterday, attorney Joe Lavigne, who finished 4th in the 2006 jungle primary, and Dillard University professor Gary Clark, are still considering it.
So far, no one else has qualified. It'll be interesting to see if any Republicans bother to throw their hat in the ring, considering that Charlie will be seeking his 3rd term this fall, and he won his re-election campaign quite convincingly over former State Senator Craig Romero, 55-40 in 2006.
John Fleming, Republican
Chris Gorman, Republican
Jeff Thompson, Republican
Chester T. "Catfish" Kelley, No Party
Mr. Kelly ran back in '06, and garnered some 2% of the vote as a Republican. My guess is he'll garner about the same as that, or even less than that in a competitive open seat election.
LA-05
Rodney Alexander, Republican
A Republican has stepped forward to take on the traitor ... his name is:
So here's the list of folks who qualified to run for the eight federal offices up for election in Louisiana this year, with a note as to when various folks are planning to qualify:(if there is no link to a website, it's because the candidate is a Republican, or they don't have one)
LA-Sen
None today.
Senator Landrieu plans to qualify on Friday morning, after which she will kick off her "Winning for Louisiana" tour with stops in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Shreveport, Monroe, Alexandria, Lake Charles and New Orleans over the weekend.
John Neely Kennedy kicked off his "Nonsense on a Bus" tour through the state, and will supposedly qualify at some point during the tour.
I believe these two are the only ones planning on running from either party ... there may be some minor candidates that come out of the woodwork between now and Friday, but this will be main event here in LA-01.
LA-02
James Carter, Democrat Troy "C" Carter, Democrat
William Jefferson, Democrat
Byron L. Lee, Democrat
Helena Moreno, Democrat Cedric Richmond, Democrat
Malik Rahim, Green Party
Apparently, Karen Carter-Peterson is not running. There are still others considering it, including Nagin aide Kenya Smith, State Senator Cheryl Gray, both of whom are Democrats. There are two Republicans considering making the race, attorney Joe Lavigne, who finished 4th in the 2006 jungle primary, and Dillard University professor Gary Clark.
So far, no one else has qualified. It'll be interesting to see if any Republicans bother to throw their hat in the ring, considering that Charlie will be seeking his 3rd term this fall, and he won his re-election campaign quite convincingly over former State Senator Craig Romero, 55-40 in 2006.
John Fleming, Republican
Chris Gorman, Republican
Jeff Thompson, Republican
Mr. Banks and Mr. Milkovich are first-time candidates for this seat, I believe. Dr. Cash ran back in '06, and split the Democratic vote with Patti Cox 17% and 13%, respectively, with little or no Louisiana Democratic Party backing. This time, Mr. Carmouche is considered the heavy front-runner for the Democrats, thanks to his long service as the Caddo Parish District Attorney.
On the Republican side, outgoing Congressman Jim McCrery has been instrumental to Jeff Thompson, going so far to endorse him, and secure the endorsements of House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan and Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas. Needless to say, the Republicans back home aren't sitting on their hands ... they're challenging McCrery's pick.
LA-05
Rodney Alexander, Republican
So far, no one has stepped forward to take on the traitor. Hopefully, someone will, but it will be an uphill fight, as it is late in the game to start the fundraising.
Don Cravins, Jr., Democrat
Charles Boustany, Republican
Peter Vidrine, Other
Boustany has been an absolute disappointment as a Representative for Southwest Louisiana, refusing to earmark any money for this district, which is struggling to rebuild after Hurricane Rita washed ashore in 2005. Mr. Cravins offers an attractive alternative for voters ... and will give Boustany a run for his money.
That's Paul Carmouche on the right giving an interview to a lonely (and cold) cameraman from one of Shreveport's local news channels. 
