Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco reversed her earlier announced intention to run for reelection in the October 2007 primary, and announced on March 20 on statewide radio and television that she will not run.

Gov. Blanco said, "I'm announcing my decision early, well before the legislative session (which runs April 30 to June 28 this year). I'm doing this so we can work without interference from election year politics. Every action in my remaining months in office will be to serve Louisiana's best interests."

Attention immediately turned to former Louisiana State legislator and United States Senator John Breaux, who was expected to make an announcement of his possible candidacy on the Democratic ticket this month. Following Blanco's announcement, the Republican opposition began immediate attack advertisements against Breaux, who is presumed to be the strongest potential Democrat in the field should be run. Some in the state speculated that the Republicans hope to goad Breaux into running, and then to challenge in court his residency status in the state, since he lives primarily in the Washington DC area as a well-paid lobbyist attorney. The pre-emptive attacks could also be interpreted as acknowledgment that Breaux, a native Cajun from Lafayette in Southwest Louisiana, would be "the man to beat," in a hard-fought partisan campaign in which Congressman Bobby Jindal of Baton Rouge is the Republican front-runner by several lengths.

The field on both Democratic and Republican sides is growing. Democratic Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell of Shreveport made his formal announcement for Governor in a series of seven stops over two days March 19 and 20, beginning in New Orleans, then swinging through Baton Rouge, Bossier City, Monroe, Alexandria, Lake Charles, and Lafayette. Campbell has maintained a high profile for months, building on press generated by his activities on the PSC--with an obvious eye toward the historic leap by Huey Long from Commissioner to Governor in 1928. However, after a 44-year run of North Louisiana governors (excepting Sam H. Jones of Lake Charles from 1936-1940) beginning with Huey Long, only one North Louisianian--Buddy Roemer, for one term from 1988-1992--has been elected Governor since Edwin Edwards of Crowley edged out Bennett Johnston of Shreveport in 1972. Roemer won by acclamation when Edwards, smarting from a bruising Federal court trial in New Orleans in which he was found not guilty, declined to stick around for the runoff which he had earned in the primary. And all of the other announced and potential candidates who have or may enter the '07 race, are from South Louisiana--making it problematic to anticipate a return to North Louisiana, which has consistently lost population relative to the South for the past 30-plus years.

So, if at age 63 and wealthy with big legal and lobbying contracts, John Breaux runs--as some think the Republicans hope he will--he will be the big dog on the Democratic side. And he could surprise the Repubs by winning, but not without a big shoot-out with the 30-ish Bobby Jindal. If Breaux sits it out? Have to be Jindal in a walk. And making it personal . . . In 1998, Jindal was Executive Director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare, a 17-member panel which adopted recommendations on how to strengthen Medicare. Chairman of that Commission? Why, Senator John Breaux, of course. Ah, politics--it's a small world, after all.

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