Could Vitter have won in a traditional primary?

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I suspect much of the reason that Vitter was able to make the runoff in Louisiana is because of their top two blanket primary system.  But given his scandals, could he have won in a traditional party primary?  Discuss.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

He'd still only need a third of the vote, assuming the same field. So probably.

[Miles]

I think so, and likely by a bigger margin. He had the most partisan Republicans. I'm sure Dardenne pulled from some moderate Democrats in the primary and many of Angelle's voters in Acadiana are still registered Democrats.

[/]

Why would any Democrats cross over and vote for Vitter in the primary?

Well I guess some did to boost Edwards' runoff chances, but probably not that many.

So yeah.

[Adam Griffin]

There's actually some debate about this in a GA-based campaigning group after someone posted this. My response was really long-winded, of course, but for here I'll just say:

Unless LA maintained the 50% run-off element (which only GA & LA to my knowledge have) when transferring to party-only primaries, then Vitter would have definitely won in the primary election. If there was a primary run-off like there is in GA between the top two in the party, then it's certainly possible that Dardenne or (more likely) Angelle would have won. However, that's not guaranteed and I think Vitter's advantages would have overcome his disadvantages in the end.

About all that would have ended Vitter's chances would be ranked-choice ballots and instant-runoff voting, which was one of the premises in the article that said LA elected the "wrong" Governor. However, that ain't happening, so...I think Vitter would have likely won regardless in any realistic scenario involving traditional US voting.

[Mister Mets]

Vitters would lose in a state like Georgia or Texas that has a runoff primary, which is probably the best way to go about it.

But in a regular runoff he'd win.

[Kingpoleon]

No. Edwards would use our equivalent to big labor machines, suburbanites grouped closely together being bused to the polls, to easily win ~30-40% of the vote.