The 2003 Louisiana gubernatorial election was held on November 15, 2003, to elect the
governor of Louisiana
The governor of Louisiana (; ) is the chief executive of the U.S. state government of Louisiana. The governor also serves as the commander in chief of the Louisiana National Guard. Republican Jeff Landry has held the office since January 8, ...
. Incumbent
Republican governor
Mike Foster was not eligible to run for re-election to a third term because of
term limits
A term limit is a legal restriction on the number of Term of office, terms a Incumbent, person may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in Presidential system, presidential and Semi-presidential republic, semi-president ...
established by the
Louisiana Constitution
The Louisiana Constitution is legally named the Constitution of the State of Louisiana and commonly called the Louisiana Constitution of 1974, and the Constitution of 1974. The constitution is the cornerstone of the law of Louisiana ensuring the ...
.
Elections in Louisiana, with the exception of U.S. presidential elections, follow a variation of the
open primary
Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pri ...
system called the
jungle primary. Candidates of 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 percent of the vote in the first round, a run-off election is then held between the top two candidates, who may be members of the same party. In this election, the first round of voting was held on October 4, 2003, and the runoff was held on November 15, 2003.
As of , this is the most recent Louisiana gubernatorial election in which the winner of the first round did not win the runoff.
Candidates
Democrats
*
Kathleen Blanco
Kathleen Marie Blanco (née Babineaux; December 15, 1942 – August 18, 2019) was an American politician who served as the 54th governor of Louisiana from 2004 to 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first and, to date, only wom ...
of
Lafayette had led the high-profile growth of the state's tourism industry in her two terms as lieutenant governor. Blanco ran as a conservative
anti-abortion
Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its Abortion by country, legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in r ...
Democrat, hoping to appeal to enough Republican voters to enter the runoff over her Democratic rivals.
*Attorney General
Richard Ieyoub of
Lake Charles had endorsements from labor and the Louisiana Sheriffs Association and had the most campaign contributions of any candidate. His campaign strategy was to try to secure the votes of the Democrats' traditional base: labor, African-Americans, and teachers and professional groups.
*
Anthony Claude "Buddy" Leach, Jr., of
Leesville and
Lake Charles spent a large amount of his own money on the campaign. Leach ran a liberal populist campaign that included promises of minimum wage increases and teacher raises and social programs funded by a new oil-processing tax.
*Former state Senate president
Randy Ewing of
Quitman ran on a reform platform. Ewing was endorsed by
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin in the primary, and had a significant base in north Louisiana.
*Former state senator
J. E. Jumonville, Jr. of
Ventress ran on a platform of cutting the severance tax as well as lowering the taxes on barrels of oil produced in the state. He also took an uncharacteristic stance of a Democrat in advocating the placing of the Ten Commandments in all the parish courthouses and in the State Capitol. A former sixteen-year veteran of the state Senate, Jumonville self-funded his race but couldn't seem to gain traction as he started way too late in the race.
Republicans
*
Bobby Jindal
Piyush "Bobby" Jindal (born June 10, 1971) is an American politician who served as the 55th governor of Louisiana from 2008 to 2016. A member of the Republican Party, Jindal previously served as a U.S. representative from Louisiana from 2005 t ...
of
Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...
, the state Secretary of Health and Hospitals. He received early support from the departing Governor
Murphy J. "Mike" Foster, Jr. His policy experience and educational background made him a natural fit among suburban and business-oriented Republicans, and he made a strong effort to reach out to rural conservatives.
*Former state House Speaker
Huntington B. Downer, Jr., of
Houma, a brigadier general in the National Guard. Downer had the support of several prominent Republican politicians, but his campaign never caught on with large sections of the public.
*Public Service Commissioner
Jack A. "Jay" Blossman, Jr., ran a series of provocative campaign ads designed to appeal to social conservatives, but he failed to gain much support in preliminary polls. He dropped out of the race a week before the primary and endorsed Hunt Downer.
Campaign
Departing Governor Foster was disqualified from succeeding himself for a third term by Louisiana's constitution, so the 2003 race was perceived as wide open and saw a large number of candidates enter the campaign. The primary phase of the campaign was characterized by a large number of strong Democratic contenders. Ieyoub was seen as one of the strongest Democratic candidates throughout the campaign, and only narrowly lost a slot in the runoff to Blanco, who had a strong base of support in the Acadian parishes and among women voters. The efforts of Leach to appeal to the same base as Ieyoub led them to split the Democratic vote and to come in third and fourth.
The leading Republican candidate, by contrast, was chosen fairly early on. Jindal took a commanding lead among Republican supporters early in the campaign, leaving Hunt Downer far behind.
In the runoff, Jindal received endorsements from the New Orleans
Times-Picayune
''The Times-Picayune , The New Orleans Advocate'' (commonly called ''The Times-Picayune'' or the ''T-P'') is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ancestral publications of other names date back to January 25, 1837. The cu ...
(the largest paper in Louisiana), New Orleans Mayor Nagin (who had supported Ewing in the primary but declined to endorse Blanco in the runoff), and outgoing Republican governor Mike Foster. Some political analysts believe that his narrow loss was partly due to racism. Other political analysts have blamed Jindal for his refusal to answer questions about his record brought up in several ads, which the Jindal campaign called "negative attack ads", the most effective of which denounced his health care plan. Still others note that a significant number of conservative Louisianans remained more comfortable voting for a conservative Democrat than for a Republican. The runoff between Bobby Jindal and Kathleen Blanco brought two 'firsts' for Louisiana political history. If elected, Jindal would have been the United States' first Indian-American governor (which he did 4 years later). The victorious Blanco became Louisiana's first woman governor. She was also the second woman to have been lieutenant governor.
Predictions
Jungle primary results
Runoff results
The race was close, with Blanco prevailing by almost 4%. Blanco won a huge majority of
Louisiana
Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...
's parishes, however, Jindal was able to keep Blanco's margin of victory in the single digits with a strong performance in
Jefferson Parish and
St. Tammany Parish, plus a narrow win in
East Baton Rouge Parish
East Baton Rouge Parish (; ) is the most populous List of parishes in Louisiana, parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Its population was 456,781 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The county seat, parish seat is Baton Rouge, Louis ...
. It was ultimately
Orleans Parish
Orleans Parish (; ) is a parish of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Since 1870, the parish has been coextensive with the city of New Orleans, and the parish and city are largely governed as a single consolidated city.
History
On April 10, 180 ...
home of
New Orleans
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
that insured a Blanco victory, though her 68.3% victory here was much smaller than
Al Gore
Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...
's 76% in the
2000 presidential election. This was the closest gubernatorial election since 1979, and there would not be another close gubernatorial race in Louisiana until 2019.
References
Sources
Louisiana Secretary of State Elections Division. Official Election Results Database* Parent, Wayne. ''Inside the Carnival: Unmasking Louisiana Politics.'' LSU Press, 2004.
* ''The New Orleans Times-Picayune.'' "Jindal takes easy lead heading into runoff." October 5, 2003.
{{United States elections, 2003
2003
2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater.
In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War.
Demographic ...
Gubernatorial
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...
Louisiana
Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...