Meet the candidates: Congressional primaries postponed in Louisiana; Guam election set for Saturday

Share this

(For a full list of candidates, see the Guam and Louisiana portals.)

By Congresspedia assistant editor Avelino Maestas

While the New Orleans Saints will host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the Superdome this weekend, a different contest has been delayed: the Louisiana congressional primary election. State officials decided to postpone the election — originally scheduled for Saturday — due to the mass evacuation for Hurricane Gustav earlier this week, and the resulting damage. The election will go on in Guam, however, where two Democrats are vying for the territory’s delegate seat.

Following advice from Secretary of State Jay Dardenne, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal bumped the primaries back to Oct. 4. The move also affects the general election date: under Louisiana’s open system, unless one candidate fetches more than 50-percent of the vote, a runoff is held between the top two finishers. Any necessary runoffs would be held on Nov. 4 (the date of the presidential election), while the general election for congressional seats would be pushed back to Dec. 6.

Regardless of when the election will be held, at least two Louisiana congressional districts will have competitive primaries. In the 2nd district, at least seven candidates are challenging indicted Rep. William Jefferson for the Democratic nomination and in the 4th, ten candidates are trying to capture their respective party nominations for the open seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Jim McCrery (R).

The postponement still has to be approved by the Dept. of Justice, which Dardenne said he expects next week, but either way polls will not be open on Saturday.

In Guam, Rep. Madeleine Bordallo (D) is seeking re-election to represent the territory’s residents in Congress as its one non-voting delegate. Bordallo, a former lieutenant governor of Guam, has been delegate since 2003. She’s challenged by newcomer Jonathan Diaz (who we couldn't find almost any information on).

As part of our Wiki the Vote project, our citizen-editors have been tracking all the races and building profiles of many of the candidates. We’ll have more on the winners Wednesday (including the challengers' occupations), so stay tuned then. In the meantime, if you know something about any of the races listed above, or any race in the country, please post it for your fellow citizens to read: Find your state at the Wiki The Vote homepage, select a candidate or incumbent and click "edit." It’s easy, and you can always ask one of our staff editors for help.