Louisiana House elections, 2006
Encyclopedia
The first round of the Louisiana
House election of 2006 were held on Tuesday, November 7, 2006. The terms of all seven Representatives to the United States House of Representatives
will expire on January 3, 2007, and will be put up for contest. The winning candidates will serve a two-year term from January 3, 2007 to January 3, 2009. If necessary, a runoff round will be held on December 9, 2006.
Louisiana uses a unique voting system to determine its representation in the U.S. Congress. 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. This means that the outcome of some races might not be known until over a month later than the rest of the country.
The Louisiana races, especially those in the southern portion of the state, were impacted to some extent as a result of Hurricane Katrina
, as well as Hurricane Rita
, both of which have caused massive damage within Louisiana. For example, most of New Orleans' majority African-American communities were displaced by Katrina.
All Louisiana Congressmen won re-election and avoided a run-off except Democrat William Jefferson of New Orleans, under investigation for corruption. He won a run-off against fellow Democrat Karen Carter
.
Note: For calculating the totals of the Democratic and Republican parties with regard to the 2nd district, the jungle primary
results, not the runoff results, are used.
Incumbent Republican Congressman Bobby Jindal
, first elected in 2004, faced no serious challenge from Democratic challengers David Gereighty, an electrical engineer, and Stacey Tallitsch, a computer engineer, or from Libertarian opponent Peter Beary. This highly conservative district is based around Lake Pontchartrain
and the suburbs of New Orleans and Jindal was re-elected with nearly ninety percent of the vote.
This staunchly liberal district, based mainly within the city of New Orleans, has elected Bill Jefferson to Congress consecutively since 1990. Seeking his ninth term in Congress, Jefferson was largely unpopular due to the fact that he was under federal investigation for corruption charges at the time, and therefore, a great many candidates emerged to challenge him. On the Democratic side, State Representative
Karen Carter
, State Senator
Derrick Sheperd, New Orleans City Councilman Troy Carter
, Orleans Parish School Board attorney Regina Bartholomew, John Edwards, Scott Barron, former congressional candidate Vinny Mendoza, and D.C. Collins ran. Republicans Joe Lavigne
, an attorney; Eric Bradley; Lance von Uhde and Libertarian Rhumbline Kahn also ran, creating a very crowded race. In the first line of balloting, no candidate received a majority of the votes, so the top two candidates, Jefferson and Carter, advanced to a second line of balloting, which Jefferson ultimately won by a comfortable margin, despite the corruption charges against him.
Incumbent Democratic Congressman Charlie Melançon
won his first term 2004 by defeating Billy Tauzin III
, the son of the retiring Congressman by only 569 votes, leading many to conclude that he was vulnerable to a Republican challenger. State Senator
Craig Romero
emerged as Melançon’s chief competitor, though Democrat O.J. Breech and Libertarian James Blake also ran, but ultimately fell to Melançon by a surprisingly comfortable margin in this solidly conservative district based in the southern suburbs of New Orleans and south-central Louisiana.
This district, based in northwestern Louisiana and greater Shreveport
, is staunchly conservative and has consistently re-elected incumbent Republican Congressman Jim McCrery
with solid margins since his initial election in 1988. This year proved to be no different, and Congressman McCrery walloped Democrats Artis Cash and Patti Cox and Republican Chester Kelley with over fifty-seven percent of the vote.
Incumbent Republican Congressman Rodney Alexander
was initially elected to this conservative, northeast Louisiana district in 2002 as a Democrat, but switched to the Republican Party in 2004 and was re-elected for the first time as a Republican. In 2006, he was re-elected in a landslide over Democrat Gloria Hearn, Libertarian Brent Sanders, and independent John Watts.
This conservative district is based around the Baton Rouge metropolitan area
and was represented by Republican Congressman Richard Baker. Baker sought his eleventh term in Congress and faced no Democratic challenger, but did square off against Libertarian candidate Richard Fontanesi, a contest that he won in an overwhelming landslide.
Incumbent Republican Congressman Charles Boustany
sought a second term in this conservative district based in the Cajun
, southwest portion of the state. Boustany’s initial election in 2004, to replace previous Congressman Chris John
was relatively close and attracted national attention. In 2006, he faced Democratic nominee Mike Stagg, and the contest proved to be relatively uneventful, with Boustany winning a second term with over seventy percent of the vote.
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
House election of 2006 were held on Tuesday, November 7, 2006. The terms of all seven Representatives to the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
will expire on January 3, 2007, and will be put up for contest. The winning candidates will serve a two-year term from January 3, 2007 to January 3, 2009. If necessary, a runoff round will be held on December 9, 2006.
Louisiana uses a unique voting system to determine its representation in the U.S. Congress. Elections in Louisiana—with the exception of U.S. presidential elections—follow a variation of the open primary
Open primary
An open primary is a primary election that does not require voters to be affiliated with a political party in order to vote for partisan candidates. In a traditional open primary, voters may select one party's ballot and vote for that party's nomination. As in a closed primary, the highest voted...
system called the jungle primary
Jungle primary
A nonpartisan blanket primary is a primary election in which all candidates for elected office run in the same primary regardless of political party. Under this system, the top two candidates who receive the most votes advance to the next round, as in a runoff election...
. 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. This means that the outcome of some races might not be known until over a month later than the rest of the country.
The Louisiana races, especially those in the southern portion of the state, were impacted to some extent as a result of Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
, as well as Hurricane Rita
Hurricane Rita
Hurricane Rita was the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the most intense tropical cyclone ever observed in the Gulf of Mexico. Rita caused $11.3 billion in damage on the U.S. Gulf Coast in September 2005...
, both of which have caused massive damage within Louisiana. For example, most of New Orleans' majority African-American communities were displaced by Katrina.
All Louisiana Congressmen won re-election and avoided a run-off except Democrat William Jefferson of New Orleans, under investigation for corruption. He won a run-off against fellow Democrat Karen Carter
Karen Carter Peterson
Karen Carter Peterson is a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate, representing the 5th District since 2010. She previously served as the representative from District 93 , in the Louisiana House of Representatives and as Speaker Pro Tempore...
.
| United States House of Representatives elections in Louisiana, 2006 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | Percentage | Seats | +/– | |
| Republican | 579,702 | 63.29% | 5 | — | |
| Democratic | 309,279 | 33.76% | 2 | — | |
| Independents | 27,034 | 2.95% | 0 | — | |
| Totals | 916,015 | 100.00% | 7 | — | |
Note: For calculating the totals of the Democratic and Republican parties with regard to the 2nd district, the jungle primary
Jungle primary
A nonpartisan blanket primary is a primary election in which all candidates for elected office run in the same primary regardless of political party. Under this system, the top two candidates who receive the most votes advance to the next round, as in a runoff election...
results, not the runoff results, are used.
District 1
Incumbent Republican Congressman Bobby Jindal
Bobby Jindal
Piyush "Bobby" Jindal is the 55th and current Governor of Louisiana and formerly a member of the United States House of Representatives. He is a member of the Republican Party....
, first elected in 2004, faced no serious challenge from Democratic challengers David Gereighty, an electrical engineer, and Stacey Tallitsch, a computer engineer, or from Libertarian opponent Peter Beary. This highly conservative district is based around Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain is a brackish estuary located in southeastern Louisiana. It is the second-largest inland saltwater body of water in the United States, after the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and the largest lake in Louisiana. As an estuary, Pontchartrain is not a true lake.It covers an area of with...
and the suburbs of New Orleans and Jindal was re-elected with nearly ninety percent of the vote.
District 2
This staunchly liberal district, based mainly within the city of New Orleans, has elected Bill Jefferson to Congress consecutively since 1990. Seeking his ninth term in Congress, Jefferson was largely unpopular due to the fact that he was under federal investigation for corruption charges at the time, and therefore, a great many candidates emerged to challenge him. On the Democratic side, State Representative
Louisiana House of Representatives
The Louisiana House of Representatives is the lower house in the Louisiana State Legislature, the state legislature of the US state of Louisiana. The House is composed of 105 Representatives, each of whom represents approximately 42,500 people . Members serve four-year terms with a term limit of...
Karen Carter
Karen Carter Peterson
Karen Carter Peterson is a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate, representing the 5th District since 2010. She previously served as the representative from District 93 , in the Louisiana House of Representatives and as Speaker Pro Tempore...
, State Senator
Louisiana State Senate
The Louisiana State Senate is the upper house of the state legislature of Louisiana. All Senators serve four year terms and are assigned multiple committees to work on. The Republicans control the State Senate following a Special Election Victory in District 26 by Jonathan W. Perry...
Derrick Sheperd, New Orleans City Councilman Troy Carter
Troy Carter (politician)
Troy Anthony "C" Carter is a former member of the New Orleans City Council.In 1994 he was elected to represent District C on the Council, becoming the first African-American to represent that area of the Council since Reconstruction. He served until 2002, when he unsuccessfully sought the office...
, Orleans Parish School Board attorney Regina Bartholomew, John Edwards, Scott Barron, former congressional candidate Vinny Mendoza, and D.C. Collins ran. Republicans Joe Lavigne
Joe Lavigne
The election to Louisiana's 2nd congressional district was noteworthy since the incumbent, William J. Jefferson , was announced under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which claimed they had videotaped him accepting 100,000 USD in bribes. The police also found money in...
, an attorney; Eric Bradley; Lance von Uhde and Libertarian Rhumbline Kahn also ran, creating a very crowded race. In the first line of balloting, no candidate received a majority of the votes, so the top two candidates, Jefferson and Carter, advanced to a second line of balloting, which Jefferson ultimately won by a comfortable margin, despite the corruption charges against him.
District 3
Incumbent Democratic Congressman Charlie Melançon
Charlie Melancon
Charles Joseph "Charlie" Melancon was the U.S. Representative for , serving from 2005 to 2011, and the unsuccessful 2010 Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican David Vitter.-Early life, education and career:...
won his first term 2004 by defeating Billy Tauzin III
Billy Tauzin III
Wilbert Joseph "Billy" Tauzin III was born December 1, 1973 in Thibodaux, Louisiana, the son of Congressman Billy Tauzin and Gayle Clement Tauzin, currently married to Ikram S. Tauzin...
, the son of the retiring Congressman by only 569 votes, leading many to conclude that he was vulnerable to a Republican challenger. State Senator
Louisiana State Senate
The Louisiana State Senate is the upper house of the state legislature of Louisiana. All Senators serve four year terms and are assigned multiple committees to work on. The Republicans control the State Senate following a Special Election Victory in District 26 by Jonathan W. Perry...
Craig Romero
Craig Romero
Craig Francis Romero is a New Iberia corporate salesman who represented District 22 in the Louisiana State Senate from 1993 to 2008. The district includes the parishes of Iberia, Lafayette, St. Martin, and Vermilion. Romero was president of the Iberia Parish government from 1984 to 1992. He...
emerged as Melançon’s chief competitor, though Democrat O.J. Breech and Libertarian James Blake also ran, but ultimately fell to Melançon by a surprisingly comfortable margin in this solidly conservative district based in the southern suburbs of New Orleans and south-central Louisiana.
District 4
This district, based in northwestern Louisiana and greater Shreveport
Shreveport-Bossier City metropolitan area
The Shreveport-Bossier City Metropolitan Statistical Area is a metropolitan area in northwestern Louisiana that covers three parishes – Caddo, Bossier, and De Soto. As of the 2000 census, the MSA had a population of 375,965...
, is staunchly conservative and has consistently re-elected incumbent Republican Congressman Jim McCrery
Jim McCrery
James Otis "Jim" McCrery, III , is an American lawyer who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1988 to 2009; he represented the 4th District of Louisiana, based in the northwestern quadrant of the state.McCrery was a ranking member on the House Ways and...
with solid margins since his initial election in 1988. This year proved to be no different, and Congressman McCrery walloped Democrats Artis Cash and Patti Cox and Republican Chester Kelley with over fifty-seven percent of the vote.
District 5
Incumbent Republican Congressman Rodney Alexander
Rodney Alexander
Rodney McKinnie Alexander is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district covers twenty-two parishes in roughly the northeast quadrant of the state...
was initially elected to this conservative, northeast Louisiana district in 2002 as a Democrat, but switched to the Republican Party in 2004 and was re-elected for the first time as a Republican. In 2006, he was re-elected in a landslide over Democrat Gloria Hearn, Libertarian Brent Sanders, and independent John Watts.
District 6
This conservative district is based around the Baton Rouge metropolitan area
Baton Rouge metropolitan area
The Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is a sprawling area consisting of nine parishes in Louisiana, anchored by the city of Baton Rouge...
and was represented by Republican Congressman Richard Baker. Baker sought his eleventh term in Congress and faced no Democratic challenger, but did square off against Libertarian candidate Richard Fontanesi, a contest that he won in an overwhelming landslide.
District 7
Incumbent Republican Congressman Charles Boustany
Charles Boustany
Charles William Boustany, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2005. He is a member of the Republican Party.-Early life, education, and medical career:...
sought a second term in this conservative district based in the Cajun
Cajun
Cajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles...
, southwest portion of the state. Boustany’s initial election in 2004, to replace previous Congressman Chris John
Chris John
Christopher Charles "Chris" John is American politician who was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1997 to 2005, representing Louisiana's 7th congressional district.-Early life:...
was relatively close and attracted national attention. In 2006, he faced Democratic nominee Mike Stagg, and the contest proved to be relatively uneventful, with Boustany winning a second term with over seventy percent of the vote.
See also
- United States House elections, 2006United States House elections, 2006- House of Representatives prior to the election :As of November 7, 2006, the U.S. House of the 109th Congress was composed of 229 Republicans, 201 Democrats and 1 Independent . There were also four vacancies...
- United States House elections, 2006 complete listUnited States House elections, 2006 complete listElections to the United States House of Representatives for the 110th Congress were held on November 7, 2006. The House of Representatives has 435 seats. In the 109th Congress, Republicans held 229 seats, Democrats held 201, with one independent...
- United States Congressional Delegations from LouisianaUnited States Congressional Delegations from LouisianaThese are tables of congressional delegations from Louisiana to the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives.-United States Senate:-United States House of Representatives:-1806 - 1811: 1 non-voting delegate:...