Saturday’s congressional primary election on hold

• By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Sep 3, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Saturday’s party primaries for the congressional races are on hold because of the extensive damage from Hurricane Gustav.

Secretary of State Jay Dardenne said Tuesday that the degree of destruction makes it impossible to hold an election. He did not have a new date for the election.

Four congressional races are affected — the seats held by U.S. Reps. William Jefferson, Jim McCrery, Rodney Alexander and Steve Scalise.

The primary allows each party to select candidates. A runoff election was scheduled for Oct. 4 if no clear winner emerged in the party primary. The general election, scheduled for Nov. 4, will pit candidates from each recognized political party and those without party affiliation.

In the 2nd Congressional District, Jefferson, D-New Orleans, is facing a number of challengers. Scalise, R-Metairie, and Alexander, R-Quitman, also have opposition. Scalise holds the 1st District seat once held by Gov. Bobby Jindal. Alexander is in the 5th District.

McCrery, R-Shreveport, is not running for re-election in the 4th Congressional District. A number of Republicans and Democrats are vying to replace him.

The party primaries were the big-ticket item on the ballot. St. Landry and Bossier parishes also were slated to vote on propositions.

Delaying an election requires the approval of the governor and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Approval from the justice department may not come until after the fact, Dardenne said.

Early voting for the Saturday primaries should not be affected because it concluded before the storm hit, he said.

The votes are locked in the machines to be counted on election day, Dardenne said.

He said there are a number of problems with holding the election Saturday, citing the fact that he has not heard from a number of commissioners, power is off in Baton Rouge and damage to a voting machine warehouse in Lafourche Parish.