Louisiana gubernatorial election, 1987

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Louisiana gubernatorial election of 1987 resulted in the election of Buddy Roemer as governor of Louisiana.

[edit] Background

Elections in Louisiana—with the exception of U.S. presidential elections—follow a variation of the open primary system called the jungle primary. Candidates of any and all parties are listed on one ballot; voters need not limit themselves to the candidates of one party. Unless one candidate takes more than 50% of the vote in the first round, a run-off election is then held between the top two candidates, who may in fact be members of the same party.[2] In this election, the first round of voting was held on October 24, 1987. Having come in second place, Edwin Edwards was entitled to face Roemer in the runoff, but he withdrew from the race after the first round of voting. Buddy Roemer, elected as a Democrat, switched his party affiliation to Republican during his term as governor.

[edit] Results

First voting round, October 24

Candidate	Party affiliation	Votes received	Percentage of votes cast
Buddy Roemer	Democrat	516,078	33%
Edwin Edwards	Democrat	437,801	28%
Robert Livingston	Republican	287,780	18%
Billy Tauzin	Democrat	154,079	10%
James H. Brown	Democrat	138,223	9%
Speedy O. Long	Democrat	18,738	1%
Earl J. Amedee	Democrat	3,767	0%
Ken "Cousin Ken" Lewis	Democrat	2,264	0%

Runoff did not occur due to Edwards withdrawing

Preceded by 1983 gubernatorial election

Louisiana gubernatorial elections

Succeeded by 1991 gubernatorial election

[edit] Sources

State of Louisiana. Primary and General Election Returns, 1987.