Louisiana’s two remaining U.S. House races on Saturday’s ballot couldn’t be more strikingly different, one a gentlemanly affair with candidates largely skipping attacks and the other a brawl.
As The Associated Press reports, Republicans Scott Angelle and Clay Higgins, in a tight runoff for the Acadiana-based 3rd District seat, have accused each other of lying and disparaged each other’s records.
Angelle, a member of the Public Service Commission and third-place finisher in last year’s governor’s race, entered the race as the presumed front-runner. But what was expected to be an easy waltz to Washington for Angelle has been upended by Higgins’ upstart campaign in an election cycle favoring outsiders.
Higgins, a former St. Landry Parish sheriff’s captain dubbed the “Cajun John Wayne,” ran only 3 percentage points behind Angelle in the November primary, despite having little campaign organization and a fraction of Angelle’s money. The campaign has been blistering since then.
By comparison, the northwest Louisiana-based 4th District race is downright genteel. Republican Mike Johnson and Democrat Marshall Jones are running on their own backgrounds, rather than swapping barbs.
Johnson, the front-runner, has focused on his decades as a constitutional attorney and his nearly two years in the Legislature, pushing social and fiscal conservative issues.
Jones, also a lawyer, is running as an anti-abortion, gun rights Democrat who could work across party lines. He’s downplaying his party affiliation in a district that has favored the GOP, noting his wife and other family members are Republicans.
The seats are open because Republicans Charles Boustany and John Fleming unsuccessfully sought a U.S. Senate seat instead of re-election.
