Rodney Alexander Update: Dems Sue to Throw Party-Switching La. Congressman Out of Race

ALEXANDER BROKE LAW, LAWSUIT ALLEGES
By Chris Frink
cfrink@theadvocate.com
Capitol news bureau

A lawsuit filed Wednesday seeks to kick U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander out of his race for re-election. A hearing is scheduled at 4 p.m. Friday in Plaquemine.

Meanwhile, state Democrats are scouting out a way to insert a candidate of their choosing into the race.

Alexander of Quitman is in his first term representing the 5th Congressional District, which covers the eastern part of the state from Baton Rouge to the Arkansas line.

He stunned Democrats when he switched to the Republican Party in the waning minutes of the qualifying period Friday.

Chris Whittington, legal adviser for the state Democratic Party, filed the suit Wednesday afternoon in 18th Judicial District Court in Plaquemine.

State election law states a candidate cannot "change or add his political party designation" after he has qualified for the election, the lawsuit said.

Alexander's switch left homemaker political neophyte Zelma Blakes of Monroe as the only Democrat in the race.

Jock Scott, a Republican Party activist and a former state representative from Alexandria, is the third candidate in the race.

Whittington said he and other state party officials are looking for a way to put another Democrat, someone who would be "a viable candidate," on the ballot for the Nov. 2 election.

Just how they might accomplish that more than a week after the sign-up period ended, Whittington would not say.

Before Alexander signed up to run as a Republican, he first had to cancel his original qualification as a Democrat, Whittington said.

When Alexander canceled his qualification as a Democrat, he withdrew from the race, Whittington said, and state law also bars someone who withdraws from a race from entering it again.

The suit asks the judge to kick Alexander off the ballot and bar Secretary of State Fox McKeithen from distributing any ballots that bear Alexander's name.

Whittington represents Jeremy Lacombe of Pointe Coupee Parish, one of 22 parishes in the sprawling 5th District.

Lacombe was one of many people who called state party headquarters outraged over Alexander's last-minute switch. The party referred those callers to Whittington, who said he picked Lacombe because his lives nearby but in the district.

"My client thinks Rodney Alexander has committed a total fraud on the voters of this district," Whittington said. "He's a liar. He ought to go to church and stay there until he has worked out this huge character flaw."

The switch earned Alexander outrage and cries of "traitor" from Democrats while Republicans heaped him with praise and campaign contributions.

Alexander did not return a call for comment to his congressional office in Washington, D.C.

A statement released by the national Republican Party quotes Alexander as calling the suit "frivolous."

Merietta Norton, general counsel for the Secretary of State's Office, said she did not know of a case where a candidate changed parties after qualifying.

State law prohibits candidates from falsely claiming party affiliation, Norton said.

Elections officials called the registrar of voters in Jackson Parish to confirm Alexander's affiliation, she said.

Records show Alexander swapped parties at 4:30 p.m. that day, Norton said.

About 15 minutes later, he filed his second set of qualifying papers with the Secretary of State's Office, she said.

The Sour Grapes Brigade has mobilized and is preparing to steal yet another election. How about that bold promise to get a "strong Democrat" into the race, filing deadline be damned? (Thank you, New Jersey!)

I first noticed this story in Gannett's Lafayette rag, the Daily Advertiser.... of course I can't post that story (nor would I want to give them the clicks), but what really leaped out at me was a quote from this "Jeremy Lacombe" mouth-breather, whom the Democrats taught to write his own name yesterday so as to file the suit on his behalf:

"Alexander put his own personal interests above the interests of the people of the 5th District. He disenfranchised voters for political opportunity and political gain. Rodney Alexander, the politician who can be brought for the right price, will ultimately be the one paying the price."

Well, now! Apparently, changing one's party before an election, so as to run for re-election under your new party affiliation, is an act of "disenfranchisement" because it denies the Democrat faithful a "strong" Democrat to vote for! Not having an electable candidate with a "D" behind his name on the ballot, deprives the 5th District voters of their constitutional right to vote!!!

I sure wish I'd known that this was what "disenfranchisement" is, because according to this reasoning, I ought to have sued to have my own congressman, Chris John, thrown off the ballot in 2002 because there was NO OPPOSING REPUBLICAN ON THAT BALLOT AT ALL. According to this definition of "disenfranchisement", I ought to be able to sue the state of Louisiana every time I'm forced to pick between two Democrats in a local dogcatcher's race, because the 50 year-old Democrat fraud generators my state likes to call "voting machines" force me to vote in EVERY race, or have my entire ballot thrown out.

The whole point of our stupid open-primary system, at least to listen to the high-minded proponents of "good government", is to render party affiliations irrelevant and get the voters to focus on the qualifications of the candidates, no matter what their party (it was actually implemented to ensure that Republicans could never win an election in Louisiana again, but let's forget that for a moment). That being the case, Jeremy Lacombe ought to shut his trap, skulk quietly back to whatever Klan rally Chris Whittington plucked him out of, and drop his spiteful frivolous lawsuit. If he gets to build a legal case against Alexander on the charge of "disenfranchisement" (and he sure as hell does not have a case on the "disqualification" charge) because neither of the other two candidates in the race are "a strong Democrat", then not only should I be able to throw out every damn Democrat who EVER shows up on my ballot without strong GOP opposition, I should be able to sue the entire damn state in November if two Democrats end up in the run-off spots for congressman or senator, one of whom I will HAVE to vote for, so as not to invalidate my vote for George W. Bush for President of the By-God United States!!!

Or maybe, Jeremy Lacombe, we can both acknowledge that election law in Louisiana is what it is and work within the system to change it, actually elect our candidates through what passes for the democratic process in this state, and not run crying to lawyers when things don't go our way. I don't particularly like it that you helped elect a racist woman who ran a racist campaign to be my governor. But you don't see me filing any damn lawsuits!

-Dan

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