Buddy’s Back For Another Four Years

Tonight comes news that Louisiana’s statewide elections will be even less interesting that previously thought.

Namely, Joseph Cao dropped out of the Attorney General’s race. Buddy Caldwell is now unopposed.

Cao never had much of a chance at beating Caldwell, a Democrat who changed parties at the end of last year. Ideologically, he’s a centrist like Caldwell is, and he didn’t have much of an angle on raising money or a great constituency to draw from. Cao’s voting record as a congressman before being trounced by Cedric Richmond last fall was too far left to attract a lot of support from suburban conservatives in the New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Lafayette areas and he didn’t have much hope of attracting support north of Alexandria, which is Caldwell’s territory.

That meant the only real chance at victory for Cao would have involved landing the bulk of the black vote, and his track record in that community was busted in last fall’s race.

So after qualifying, and sniffing around a potential race without finding much support, Cao took the only out he had…

Cao said he met with the attorney general last Thursday at the New Orleans office of the Cao campaign treasurer, Louis Gurvich, and “I am satisfied that he will represent the best interests of Louisiana and our people.”

Cao signed the necessary document Monday asking the secretary of state to omit his name from the Oct. 22 ballot, and it will be hand-delivered to Baton Rouge on Tuesday.

This would likely spell the end of Cao’s political career. It brings the number of contested statewide seats to five, only two of which (Lt. Governor and Secretary of State) have legitimate contenders in their races.