Governor’s Race Eerily Quiet 3 Months Before The Election

The fans are running at full speed we are just waiting for the you-know-what to hit them. Such is the nature of politics in Louisiana. We had a rather rambunctious beginning to the race for Governor. Now, we are sitting and waiting, it is truly the calm before the storm.

One political observer, UL Professor of Political Science Dr. Pearson Cross, says for all of the candidates but one, time is of the essence. The one candidate that appears to be on cruise control is sitting United States Senator David Vitter. Cross says the others need to start stirring the pot.

Some of these candidates are not that well known, particularly Scott Angelle and John Bel Edwards, and you would think that they would be doing everything they could to get their name recognition up.

The latest polls do show Vitter and Edwards as the most likely candidates to be in a runoff if the election were held today. That doesn't mean that one of the other candidates couldn't mount a charge over the next three months.

The people who need to shake this up, or who's campaign is looking to do that, is Scott Angelle and Jay Dardenne, who are also Republicans who have less support than David Vitter, right now.

Most observers, including Cross who made his comments to the Louisiana Radio Network, feel September the 8th will be the day when the action heats up. That is the first official day for candidates to qualify for the race. Cross says that in addition to officially qualifying for the election there are other reasons the campaign trail will suddenly become more active.

Once you get to qualifying, people's summer vacations are over, they're ready to think about the elections, and so on.  I think you'll see it really going up in a big way at that point.

Louisiana voters will go to the polls to elect a new Governor on October 24th of this year.