Popular former Senator John Breaux will not return to Louisiana to run for Governor this year after failing to obtain a favorable opinion from the state's Democratic Attorney General on whether he meets the residency requirements of the state Constitution. Doug Simpson of the Associated Press reports:
"I said I would be guided by the attorney general's opinion, and therefore will not be a candidate for governor," said the Democrat, who represented Louisiana for 32 years in Congress.
Earlier in the day, Attorney General Charles Foti said a court should rule on the question of whether Breaux was eligible to run in the Oct. 20 primary.At issue was a requirement of the Louisiana constitution that requires candidates for statewide elected office be a "citizen" of the state for "at least the preceding five years." Breaux has been a Maryland resident since 2005.
Read the whole story at the link above. One might presume that a fellow who has been a legal resident of another state for over a year would be ineligible to run for office in another state which requires residency for the five years immediately preceding, but that is always in doubt where Democrats meet election laws.
While Foti's report was a weaselly evasion, he deserves credit for not simply doing what he has been under tremendous pressure to do: ignore the Constitution and give Breaux the green light. (The pressure comes from his own in-state party, not from Breaux, although the Senator is hardly unaware of the type of people who have held sway in the Louisiana Democratic Party for the last 150 years or so).
This puts Louisiana in a better light than New Jersey, for example, unless Mr. Foti meets with "an unfortunate accident."
UPDATED to add: I should have noted that Breaux is the only Democrat considered able to compete with Bobby Jindal, so this is a big boost to the Jindal campaign.
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Gubernatorial Races, Louisiana
Tags: breaux, governor, louisiana
