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Holloway Says He, Not Fletcher, Should Have Been in LA General Election
The Alexandria, LA, Daily Town Talk ^
| 12-08-02
| Pitchford, Roy
Posted on 12/08/2002 11:22:15 AM PST by Theodore R.
Edited on 05/07/2004 6:49:34 PM PDT by Jim Robinson.
[history]
Defying polls that showed him as the underdog, state Rep. Rodney Alexander won an extremely narrow victory Saturday for the 5th Congressional District seat.
In complete, but unofficial, returns, Alexander, a Democrat, had 85,720 votes (50.15 percent) to 85,202 (49.85 percent) for Lee Fletcher, a Republican who had been chief of staff for 5th District Congressman John Cooksey.
(Excerpt) Read more at thetowntalk.com ...
TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 5thdistrict; alexander; congress; fletcher; holloway; la
After the primary, Holloway complained about negative campaign advertising by Barham. Then he held a press conference where he alleged unfair campaign practices just before the primary.
While never directly accusing Fletcher of the tactics, he was sharply critical of Fletcher, and Alexander used televised coverage of Holloway's comments in his advertising for the runoff.
The "news" in this article is the continued uneasiness of defeated Rep. Clyde Holloway, R-LA:
Contacted Saturday night, Holloway said the results did not affect him greatly, adding he felt he should have been in the runoff.
To: Theodore R.
Well I'm just glad that Fletcher is at peace because God wanted another Democrat in the House.
To: GraniteStateConservative
Interesting numbers..... The runoff vote was 28% below the primary vote..... The Statewide Senate race had an increase of 319 votes
Total Voters
12-07-02 170,922 -66,687
11-05-02 237,609
12-07-02
Alexander 85,720 +518
Fletcher 85,202
Total 170,922
11-05-02
Alexander 52,952 -131,705
Others 184,657
Total 237,609
3
posted on
12/08/2002 12:03:31 PM PST
by
deport
To: GraniteStateConservative
This district is winnable by the correct Republican in 04 I suspect. It appears that Fletcher just wasn't the one to carry the banner.
4
posted on
12/08/2002 12:05:35 PM PST
by
deport
To: deport
In both elections the Republican primary losers acted like danged Afghan warlords. The Senate seat and this House seat should have "R" behind them now. Idiots.
To: GraniteStateConservative
In retrospect, Fletcher may have been the innovative fresh face we thought, but he ran too poorly in rural areas to win, and the Fifth District is heavily rural in orientation if not in actual population numbers. I can see Alexander being challenged in 2004 by Fletcher AND Holloway. If so, I would suspect Alexander would win outright. LA voters tend to stick with incumbents unless they have erred egregiously.
To: deport
I think the depressed turnout can be blamed in large part on the completely negative turn the campaign took. Neither candidate offered a positive reason why he deserved to be elected, and the negative advertising was as vicious as any I've ever seen. I think a lot of voters were turned off.
You're right that an open seat in this district can be taken by a Republican, and also right that Fletcher wasn't the right Republican to do it. The other side of the coin is that incumbents tend to get reelected, so unless Alexander somehow screws up royally, or the district lines are redrawn, I expect him to be in DC for a while.
Then again, the count isn't official yet. I don't think the outcome will change based on the official count, but stranger things have happened.
7
posted on
12/08/2002 4:37:20 PM PST
by
kms61
To: kms61; deport
I can live with Suzie Terrell losing. She was largely unknown outside of New Orleans. Her campaign didn't get started until after Nov. 7th, when the White House ran her campaign for her. I was surprised the Senate race was this close. Overall, the LA Senate race was an honorable defeat.
On the other hand, the LA-05 was a complete disgrace. It should have been a cakewalk for the GOP. The two morons (Halloway & Fletcher) may have helped create the heir to the Senate seat of either Breaux or Landrieu. It is extremely hard to unseat an incumbent politician. Rodney Alexander shall represent the LA-05 until either Breaux or Landrieu retires, which won't be for a long time. The flip side of this would be pro-life Alexander having to work with 'RAT House leader Nancy Pelosi. She will only give pro-life Democrats pork-barrel leftovers.
8
posted on
12/08/2002 5:29:24 PM PST
by
Kuksool
To: Kuksool
Agree that the Republicans fumbled LA-5 away. Disagree somewhat that Alexander will be an heir to one of the incumbent Senators. He's 56 years old, and was a longtime State Representative who until now never expressed any aspirations for higher office. I was suprised he ran this time. More importantly, demographics dictate that any statewide office seeker will almost have to be from South Louisiana, regardless of ideology. Two thirds of the population resides below the I-10 corridor now. Buddy Roemer was the last major North Louisiana statewide elected official, and I'll be suprised if there's another one in my liftime.
9
posted on
12/08/2002 5:40:12 PM PST
by
kms61
To: kms61
A real tragedy of 2002 in LA is that there will be no real opportunity to win a Senate seat again until 2008 -- and who would think that Senator Landrieu will be vulnerable then? Also when a House race is lost, no matter how narrowly, the other party in LA often has to wait for a generation to have another shot at the seat. So it's a matter of LOST OPPORTUNITY, which could be the byword of the LA GOP.
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