Louisiana Statewide and Congressional Election Results 2010--Louisiana Goes Republican

The 2010 Election Day results are now official and the people have spoken with a majority of Republicans being elected to statewide offices in the State of Louisiana. The votes have now been certified as official by the Secretary of State's office, with all precincts recorded and the projected winners have been declared.

The major state wide race for Louisiana was for Lt. Governor's position. The Lt. Governor takes over for the Governor if anything should happen to him and he cannot fulfill the term in office. Running for Lt. Governor in Louisiana were Jay Dardenne, a Republican, the current Louisiana Secretary of State and Caroline Fayard, a Democrat. Jay Dardenne appears to be the new Lt. Governor of the State of Louisiana.

Jay Dardenne is the winner of this race with 3877 precincts reporting out of the total 3877 precincts in Louisiana and 719,243 votes, 57%. Caroline Fayard had 43% of the vote with 540,633 votes cast. Dardenne was the leader in pre-election poll conducted by WWL TV out of New Orleans, LA and was ahead of Fayard with as much as 8 points leading up to Election Day.

Dardenne previously served as a Louisiana State Senator before being elected to the Secretary of State position. Dardene is from Baton Rogue, LA and is no stranger to politics.

Caroline Fayard, a Democrat from the New Orleans area was endorsed by the New Orleans mayor, Mitch Landrieu. Fayard ran on the platform of doing what is best for the State of Louisiana. Fayard did not campaign on throwing hits at the other party, nor did she campaign for "left or right" tactics. For what it is worth, Fayard made a good debut into Louisiana politics in this race. Be on the lookout to see Fayard running for another office in an upcoming election.

Overall, I thought the Lt. Governor's race was clean and the campaigning by both parties was done tastefully. Both parties withheld from throwing those hard punches that just leave you not wanting to vote at all. This was the case with the U.S. Senator's race between incumbent David Vitter and Charlie Melancon, member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from the 3^rd District.

Both Vitter and Melancon had numerous campaign advertisements pointing fingers at the wrong doing of the other. The ads ran continually on all major television and radio stations in the State, as well as print ads in all the major newspapers. The ads were brutal in some cases and most people were left praying for Election Day to be over once and for all to end this battle of Melancon vs. Vitter.

David Vitter, Republican came out on top with 57% of the vote or 715,304 votes to Charlie Melancon's 38% or 476,423 votes.

Vitter's former tie to the Washington D.C. Madame made headline news in 2007 and an easy target for his opponent, Charlie Melancon in campaigning. Melancon didn't think twice of digging up the past and the mud slinging began.

Other Congressional races for seats in the House of Representatives in Louisiana also leaned toward the Republican party with only one Democrat being elected in the New Orleans area. Voting results for the Congressional races in Louisiana are as follows:

U.S. House of Representatives - 1^st Congressional District (Winners projected in bold print)

Myron Katz, D - 38,400 votes

Steve Scalise, R - 157,150

Arden Wells, O - 5,576

U.S. House of Representatives - 2nd Congressional District

Joseph Cao, R - 43,364

Anthony Marquize, N - 1,875

Jack Rodosta, N - 645

Cedrick Richmond, D - 83,653

U.S. House of Representatives - 3rd Congressional District

Jeff Landry, R - 108,957

Ravi Sangisetty, D - 61,901

U.S. House of Representatives - 4th Congressional District

Artis Cash, O - 8,960

John Fleming, R - 105,206

David Melville, D - 54,598

U.S. House of Representatives - 5th Congressional District

Rodney Alexander, R - 122,030

Tom Gibbs, Jr., N - 33.279

U.S. House of Representatives - 6th Congressional District

William "Bill" Cassidy, R - 138,552

Merritt E. McDonald, Sr., D - 72, 537

It is clear to see that Louisiana residents are not happy with the present representation by the Democratic party and spoke their minds when voting on Tuesday. With all newly elected officials being of the Republican party, except one, this election may go down in history as a "Vote for Change" in a former Democratic state.

Source:

Louisiana Secretary of State