Governor Blanco Drops Out Of Governor's Race

Governor Kathleen Blanco officially dropped out of the Governor's race this evening. The worst kept secret in Louisiana politics for months has been that she would either drop out of the race or be forced out by the Democrats. Tonight, she made it official, clearing the deck for former Senator and current Maryland resident John Breaux to run.

Louisiana's law expressly prohibits Breaux from running, given that he lives in Maryland, votes in Maryland, pays taxes in Maryland and has a Maryland driver's license, among other things. I don't recall any recent out-of-state carpetbaggers seeking state-wide office in Louisiana, but it seems to be a relatively common occurrence for Louisiana politicians to run for legislative seats in districts in which they do not reside, claiming that they reside in their newly discovered district because their mama lives there. Louisiana courts seem to buy this legal fiction and read into the statutes an invisible caveat that the candidate for office "or his mama" live in the district. Breaux has already been playing the mama card and taking it to a nonsensical new level, claiming that his mother, unfortunately now passed away, used to live in Crowley, and he inherited half of two vacant lots there from her, which somehow makes him a resident of Louisiana.