While it’s too soon to say whether Thursday’s planned recount of paper, mail-in ballots from the Senate District 16 race will result, again, in a tie for the second-place runoff spot between Republicans Steve Carter and Franklin Foil, it’s clear that GOP operatives have been trying to make sure only one of the two Republicans squares off Nov. 16 with Democrat Beverly Brooks Thompson, the primary’s leading vote-getter.
Republican donor and businessman Lane Grigsby says he encouraged Foil on Monday to bow out in the interest of the Republican Party, and in return promised to help support Foil for a judgeship.
“I’m not trying to force anybody out. I can’t,” Grigsby says. “My suggestion was this: As a good Republican, if he graciously dropped out, this one Republican would help him secure a position on the bench. But I’m not trying to force anybody out. I’m trying to ensure Senate District 16 stays on the Republican side.”
Foil, who initially beat Carter by eight votes, is staying in, at least for now.
The race has been, perhaps, the most interesting of Baton Rouge’s legislative contests this season, pitting Foil and Carter, two popular longtime House members, against Thompson, who also is well known in the community.
Foil’s eight vote lead over Carter vanished late on election night, after election officials say they realized they had accidentally scanned a batch of absentee ballots twice and had to rerun the mail-in ballots through the scanner. The second round of scans resulted in a loss of several votes to all three candidates, but gave Carter a net gain, tying him with Foil.
Grigsby says he suggested Foil, who is more than 20 years younger than Carter, should be the one to bow out in the event the tie is upheld on recount because he has more potential opportunities in his political future.
“I thought, of the two, who had the best opportunity for another course of action to have a meaningful life in helping society,” Grigsby says. “Franklin, as a lawyer and military judge, has those other options.”
Grigsby says he understands Foil’s decision not to bow out but will be supporting Carter, if on the recount, Carter remains in the runoff.
Political analyst Bernie Pinsonat predicts there will be a three-way runoff and says it’s not a given, under that scenario, that Thompson would automatically win.
“Conventional wisdom is that they’ll split the vote and she will win,” he says. “But you can’t assume that. They’ll reverse her message and say she’s a liberal Democrat so the idea that she’ll just walk-in is not true.”
