Louisiana gubernatorial election, 1995

Louisiana gubernatorial election, 1995

November 18, 1995

Nominee Mike Foster Cleo Fields Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 984,499 565,861 Percentage 63.5% 36.5%

Parish Results

Governor before election Edwin Edwards Democratic Elected Governor Mike Foster Republican

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The Louisiana gubernatorial election of 1995 was held on November 18, 1995 to elect the Governor of Louisiana.

Incumbent Democratic Governor Edwin Edwards had planned to run for re-election to a second consecutive and fifth overall term in office, but he announced in June 1994, shortly after marrying his second wife Candy Picou, that he would be retiring from politics at the end of his term.^[1]

All 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 when voting. 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.

In this election, the first round of voting was held on October 21, 1995, with Republican State Senator Mike Foster and Democratic U.S. Representative Cleo Fields finishing first and second with 26.1% and 19%, respectively. They thus advanced to a runoff, which was held on November 18, 1995. Foster defeated Fields in a landslide.

Candidates

The early field included eight individuals considered to be "major" candidates. These were State Representative Robert Adley, U.S. Representative Cleo Fields, State Senator Mike Foster, U.S. Representative William J. Jefferson, State Treasurer Mary Landrieu, former Governor Buddy Roemer, Lieutenant Governor Melinda Schwegmann and former Governor Dave Treen.

The makeup of the field led some analysts to dub this the "twins election", as each major candidate had a rival who appealed to a similar constituency or voter base. The sets of "twins" were: two mainstream Republican former governors (Treen and Roemer); two moderate Democratic female statewide office holders with ties to New Orleans (Landrieu and Schwegmann); two conservative Democratic state legislators (Foster and Adley); and two liberal, black Democratic U.S. Representatives (Fields and Jefferson).

Treen and Jefferson eventually chose not to officially enter the race and Foster switched his party identification to Republican at the time of qualifying. Attorney Phil Preis also entered the race as a Democrat and with a self-financed campaign was able to enter the top tier of candidates. Eight minor candidates, two Democrats and six Independents, also qualified for the ballot.

Democratic Party

Declared

• Gene H. Alexander
• Belinda Alexandrenko
• Robert Adley, State Representative
• Cleo Fields, U.S. Representative
• Mary Landrieu, Louisiana State Treasurer
• Phil Preis, attorney
• Melinda Schwegmann, Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana

Declined

• William J. Jefferson, U.S. Representative

Republican Party

Declared

• Mike Foster, State Senator
• Buddy Roemer, former Governor

Declined

• Dave Treen, former Governor

Independents

Declared

• Lonnie Creech
• Ronnie Glynn Johnson, candidate for Mayor of Shreveport in 1990 and candidate for Governor in 1991
• Arthur D. "Jim" Nichols
• Anne Thompson, Republican candidate for Governor in 1991, for Louisiana's 1st congressional district in 1992 and for the State Senate in 1994
• Darryl Paul Ward, Democratic nominee for Louisiana's 6th congressional district in 1994
• Kenneth Woods

Results

Parishes won by gubernatorial candidates in the October 21, 1995 jungle primary.

  Mike Foster (38)

  Cleo Fields (18)

  Buddy Roemer (4)

  Mary Landrieu (2)

  Phil Preis (2)

Parishes won by gubernatorial candidates in the October 21, 1995 runoff election.

  Mike Foster (59)

  Cleo Fields (5)

See also

• United States gubernatorial elections, 1995

External links

• Gubernatorial runoff debate

References

Secretary of State Elections Division. Official Election Results Database