This week in politics: Early voting in primary begins tomorrow, redistricting case delayed

Every Friday, politics reporter Molly Ryan rounds up the news of the week from the campaign trail and beyond. Hear her live on Friday afternoons during the Capitol Access segment of All Things Considered on WWNO and WRKF.

Early voting in the primaries begins tomorrow — Saturday, Sept. 30 — and lasts for a week, until Saturday, Oct. 7.

Polls will be open from 8:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. each day of early voting — but they’ll be closed on Sunday, Oct. 1.

Louisianans don’t need a reason to vote early; any registered voter may choose to do so, though not typically at their regular polling places. Parishes will be opening designated early polling places for early voting. (Find yours here.)

How the primary works: Louisiana has an open primary, which means voters will be asked to choose the candidates they want to see on the ballot in the November general election for these offices:

• Statewide: Governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasury secretary, attorney general
• Locally: The specific races vary by location, but many voters will see state representatives, sheriffs, school board members, clerks and other public officials on the ballot.

The two candidates with the largest percentages of votes in each contest will land on the November ballot — unless a single candidate garners more than 50% of the votes. In such a situation, that person would be automatically declared the winner.

Read more about sample ballots, constitutional amendments and find a roundup of conversations with gubernatorial candidates in last week’s Capitol Access politics roundup.

As the primary season draws to a close, the race for governor appears to be ending much as it began: Republican Jeff Landry has remained the strong front-runner in the race, according to every poll — and Democrat Shawn Wilson is still a heavy favorite for second place.

A few other candidates have garnered increasing support lately, and have climbed a bit in the polls. Most notably among them is Republican Stephen Waguespack, who was a top aide to former Gov. Bobby Jindal and served as CEO of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, Louisiana’s largest business advocacy group.

Waguespack was recently endorsed by The Advocate | Times-Picayune editorial board — and he’s polling third in the race. In a debate Tuesday with Wilson, he pitched himself as voters’ only chance to put someone in office other than Landry.

“If you are a Democrat and you vote for Shawn [Wilson] to go into the runoff, you’re basically voting for Jeff Landry,” he said during the debate, which was hosted by the University of New Orleans. “Because I don’t think he can beat Jeff [Landry].”

Pool Photo by Sophia Germer

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The Advocate

Waguespack sits at 9% in the most recent poll — up significantly from previous polls, but still well below the numbers that Landry and Wilson are pulling in. This all matters because Louisiana’s open primary means the two candidates with the highest returns on Oct. 14 will end up on the November general election ballot.

In Tuesday’s debate. Waguespack and Wilson were the only two candidates who both met the polling requirement of 5% — and accepted an invitation to the debate. Landry also qualified, but declined to participate.

The debate wasn’t heated, but Wilson and Waguespack were divided on several issues. One was whether to allow the state’s temporary sales tax to expire in two years. Waguespack said he wants the tax to expire. Wilson, however, wants to keep it, he said, to ensure the state doesn’t face a budget shortfall.

“Several folks in this campaign are talking about the things they will do to make us safer, smarter, and healthier,” Wilson said in the debate. “But no one's talking about how you pay for that. That's voodoo economics. You have to be able to fund these priorities.”

Another issue that divided the two was abortion: Waguespack said he opposes adding exceptions for rape and incest to the state’s current ban — which is one of the strictest in the nation. He said he and his wife were advised to consider an abortion when his wife was pregnant with their middle son.

“We didn't blink. We chose no,” Waguespack said. “His life is special. His life is making a difference. And I think every life deserves that chance.”

Wilson supports those exceptions.

The two also sparred on issues like how to reform the criminal legal system, and the logistics of state-funded school choice — mostly also along party lines.

Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards announced this week that he would not endorse incumbent state Rep. Mandie Landry, also a Democrat, in her bid to keep her seat.

Instead, Edwards backed political newcomer Madison O’Malley, a business owner and political newcomer who he said he thinks is more likely to work effectively across the political aisle.

Landry represents New Orleans’ 91st district — which covers parts of Uptown, Central City and the Lower Garden District — in the state Legislature. She has been a progressive fixture at the Louisiana state Capitol for several years.

Halle Parker

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WWNO

Landry responded to Edwards’ endorsement of her Democratic challenger by saying it’s rooted in her support of abortion rights, which Gov. Edwards does not support. She recently received the endorsement of Fair Fight, a voting rights organization founded by Stacey Abrams.

The race has also drawn a third Democratic challenger, Ed Carlson.

The Robinson v. Ardoin case has been winding its way through the courts for more than a year. It centers on the Louisiana state Legislature’s redrawing of Louisiana’s U.S. House of Representatives districts.

In the new map approved by the Legislature, only one House district out of six includes a majority of voters who are Black. But nearly a third of Louisiana’s population is Black.

Last year, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick said the map dilutes the voting power of Black Louisianans, and found that it likely violates the federal Voting Rights Act. The judge ordered the Legislature to draw a new map with a second majority-Black district.

The Legislature failed to draw such a map, and the case has been moving through the court system ever since. At one point, the Supreme Court put it on hold, pending their decision in a similar case in Alabama. Once they delivered their decision in the Alabama case, Louisiana’s case was cleared to move forward in the lower courts.

Judge Shelly Dick set a hearing for next week to select a new Congressional map, to replace the one she’d rejected. According to Judge Dick’s ruling, the new map should include a second majority-Black district.

But a panel of 5th Circuit appeals court judges voted 2-1 yesterday to cancel that hearing.

So now, that redistricting process has been delayed even further — which could mean that Louisiana won’t have a new map in time for the 2024 elections.

In the meantime, the case will continue to wind its way through the courts, with oral arguments in GOP state officials’ appeal to Judge Dick’s initial ruling scheduled to be heard in the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals next Friday.

In the related case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Alabama must redraw their districts to include a second majority-Black district. And last week, the court rejected Alabama’s attempt to push back.

Vatican calls on Gov. John Bel Edwards to spare Louisiana death row prisoners' lives — The Advocate, Baton Rouge

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Life, sent a letter to Gov. John Bel Edwards this week, asking him to commute the sentences of people on Louisiana's death row to life sentences. It's part of an ongoing effort by advocacy groups and religious organizations to urge the governor to grant what The Advocate said is "a historic batch of clemency requests filed by people sentenced to execution."

What would a federal government shutdown feel like in Louisiana? — The Advocate, Baton Rouge

There's some disagreement among Louisiana's elected officials in Washington over how deeply the looming government shutdown will directly affect the lives of Louisianan. But it's likely that none of Louisiana's 18,649 federal employees will be paid until the political stalemate is resolved and a budget approved. In the meantime, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is planning to continue its work on the saltwater wedge slowly making its way up the Mississippi River.

Hewitt, only woman running for governor, criticizes Landry for consultant accused of misconduct — Louisiana Illuminator, New Orleans

State Sen. Sharon Hewitt released a statement earlier this week criticizing attorney general Jeff Landry for hiring Corey Lewandowksi, a political consultant accused of sexual harassment , who struck a plea deal last year to avoid criminal charges. Hewitt, a Republican, is the only woman in the running for governor, a race in which Landry — also a Republican — is the front-runner.

St. Tammany library board chips away at mountain of challenged books — Louisiana Illuminator, New Orleans

The parish's library board started receiving book challenges last year. Since then, about 100 books in the parish have been challenged. According to The Illuminator, the parish accounted for about 16% of the 1,200 book challenges filed across the country in 2022. The board has come to a decision — to keep or to remove — on 19 of those challenged books.