Louisiana 2003

[Kevinstat]

As of 8:48 Central Standard Time, with 1,435 of 4,143 (35%) precincts reporting, Blanco is leading with 247,778 votes (53%) to 222,980 (47%) for Jindal.  In the other statewide election where a runoff was necessary, for Insurance Commissioner, Democratic incumbant Robert Wooley is leading Republican challenger Dan Kyle 255,601 votes (57%) to 194,660 (43%).  It's not clear where those results are from, however, so it's possible that Jindal could still win.  My source for these results is http://www.sec.state.la.us:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcms2&rqsdta=111503 .

Sincerely,

Kevin Lamoreau

[Kevinstat]

As of 9:28 Louisiana time, with 3,465 of 4,143 precincts reporting (84%):

Governor's race:
Blanco (D) 592,310 votes (52%)
Jindal (R) 545,973 votes (48%)

Insurance Commissioner's race:
Wooley (D) 619,587 votes (57%)
Kyle (R) 465,581 votes (43%)

It looks like Blanco is the winner.  It is a pretty close race, but Jindal would have to win those remaining precincts by about 20% (if their average population is the same as the other precincts) in order to win.  Elections are often called with much less certainty than that.  The Insurance Commissioner's race is definately over, as the Republican nominee would likely have to get over 85% of the vote in the remaining precincts in order to win.  The Republicans will likely try to spin the results, talking about how a couple decades ago a Republican would have done much worse, but this must be disapointing for the party.  It will be interesting to see a map of the results.  Perhaps Jindal made major inroads in normally Democratic New Orleans, but suffered serious losses in the north as some polls predicted.

Sincerely,

Kevin Lamoreau