Blanco elected first female Governor of Louisiana

[Mudbug]

Katherine Babineaux-Blanco elected first female Governor of Louisiana - this is the end result for what was to be a historical election for the state of Louisiana, regardless of who won. Blanco (d) defeated "Bobby" Jindal (r), an Indian-American man who, if elected, would have become the first non-white elected governor in the South since Reconstruction. (http://www.ktbs.com/news-detail.html?cityid=1&hid=22667)

Politically speaking, the two were not too far from each other. The election results were 52% Blanco - 48% Jindal.

[bousozoku]

That is progress and a nice change. Of course, did this combination of candidates keep most of the white males from going to vote?

I was surprised to see her opponent after she mentioned that he was Asian, though. :D

[3rdpath]

quite surprising considering her opponent was considered a shoe-in as of last week...

makes my day.:D

[Stelliform]

Here is a link to the results. (http://www.sec.state.la.us:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcinq&rqsdta=start)

[coolsoldier]

Wow, having grown up in Louisiana, I am genuinely surprised that anyone voted. Sure, both candidates stood for basically what most of louisiana values (which in my recollection is not much, but I'm biased :) ) But simply the fact that louisianians were faced with voting for either a woman or a minority, my cynicism tells me that they only voted for the one who they saw as the "lesser of two evils"

That, or Louisiana has changed a lot since I came out west.

[edit: looking at the numbers, 52%-48% is almost exactly a party-line vote]

[Stelliform]

......

[mactastic]

Looks like the South isn't completely lost to the dems. First Landreau, now Blanco.

[coolsoldier]

Originally posted by mactastic
Looks like the South isn't completely lost to the dems. First Landreau, now Blanco.

I believe Louisiana actually has a slight democratic majority in the electorate. Not completely sure, though.

[Mudbug]

Nah - I'm pretty sure Louisiana has a rather pronounced Repulican slant - and has had that slant for quite a few years running now. Might be interesting if someone took the time to datamine the voter breakdown... I'm too lazy to look :D Uninformed speculation is all I'll offer :D ;)

[coolsoldier]

Here's the raw data (I'm not there anymore, so I can't really judge how accurate it is):

http://www.elections.state.la.us/weekly_stats/20031109_statewidecombo.txt

Total Registered Statewide Voters: 2,780,759
Total Statewide Democratic Voters: 1,581,134
Total Statewide Republican Voters: 649,895

In addition, by my calculations 549,730 are independent or third party.

So, a little more than half of the registered voters in the state are were democrats as of November 9.

[jonapete2001]

Good to see a woman gaining in the political arena. I do think that maybe they voted for here because the other guy was a minority though.

[Mudbug]

Originally posted by coolsoldier
So, a little more than half of the registered voters in the state are were democrats as of November 9.

I guess the republicans are just the LOUD ones around me then :D ;)

thanks for the link :) More uninformed speculation to come :D

[g5man]

Originally posted by coolsoldier
Here's the raw data (I'm not there anymore, so I can't really judge how accurate it is):

http://www.elections.state.la.us/weekly_stats/20031109_statewidecombo.txt

Total Registered Statewide Voters: 2,780,759
Total Statewide Democratic Voters: 1,581,134
Total Statewide Republican Voters: 649,895

In addition, by my calculations 549,730 are independent or third party.

So, a little more than half of the registered voters in the state are were democrats as of November 9.

A large portion of the south is still predominately Democratic. If most of the Democrats in Louisiana had voted for Blanco she should have won a landslide.
As in California there are still many more Democrats than Republicans, yet they are either too depressed or have decide that Conservative candidates are worth the vote. Hence over 62% voted for in favor of conservative candidates who promoted lower taxes and cuts in spending.

So not only do we have Democrats voting Republican but overall the number of Democrats continue to shrink across the country as noted in a previous thread.

[Stelliform]

Edit:Here is a link to results broken down by parish. (http://www.sec.state.la.us:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcps&rqsdta=111503)