BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Democratic U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu formally signed up for her re-election bid, shortly after top GOP challenger John Kennedy also registered for the race on the final day of Louisiana's candidate sign-up period.
Fall election qualifying ended Friday with a twist.
State Representative Michael Jackson, a longtime Democrat, entered the race for the Baton Rouge-based 6th District congressional seat as an independent candidate. That move will let him bypass the party primaries and could hurt freshman Democratic U.S. Representative Don Cazayoux's chances to keep the seat he won in a special election last spring.
Cazayoux is one of six Louisiana congressmen running for re-election, but the top of the state's ballot belongs to the Senate race, which has shaped up as a two-person contest. Four lesser-known candidates also entered the Senate race, including a Libertarian computer programmer from Baton Rouge, a Republican landscape contractor from Baton Rouge and a waiter at Harrah's Casino in New Orleans who signed up as an independent and said he once was homeless. Another candidate, an independent, wouldn't speak to reporters.
Also filing to run for the Senate seat were J. Jacques Boudreaux, R-Baton Rouge, Richard Fontanesi, Libertarian-Baton Rouge; Jay Patel, I-Hammond; and Robert Stewart, Other Party-New Orleans.
Here are the candidates for U.S. House of Representatives races in Louisiana: (i) denotes incumbent.
1st Congressional District: Jim Harlan, D-Lacombe; M.V. "Vinny" Mendoza, D-Ponchatoula; and Steve Scalise (i), R-Jefferson.
2nd Congressional District: James Carter, D-New Orleans; Troy Carter, D-New Orleans; Jerry Jacobs, I-New Orleans; William Jefferson (i), D-New Orleans; Byron Lee, D-Marrero; Helena Moreno, D-New Orleans; Malik Rahim, Green Party-New Orleans; Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans; Kenya Smith, D-New Orleans.
3rd Congressional District: Charlie Melancon (i), D-Napoleonville.
4th Congressional District: Willie Banks, D-Lacamp; Artis Cash, D-Shreveport; Paul Carmouche, D-Shreveport; John Fleming, R-Minden; Chris Gorman,
R-Shreveport; Chester Kelley, I-Shreveport; John Milkovich, D-Keithville; and Jeff Thompson, R-Bossier City.
5th Congressional District: Rodney Alexander (i), R-Quitman; and Andrew Clack, R-Rayville.
6th Congressional District: William Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge; and Don Cazayoux (i), D-New Roads.
7th Congressional District: Charles Boustany (i), R-Lafayette; Donald Cravins Jr., D-Opelousas; and Peter Vidrine, Other-Eunice.
Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell of Bossier City filed for re-election. He had drawn no opposition as of this afternoon.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
;)
