Democrat John Bel Edwards Wins First Primary In Louisiana Governor's Race

The pollsters and pundits were saying Edwards would win 29-30% of the vote in Saturday's primary.  They were wrong as democrat Edwards won 40% of the vote.  The best the runner up could do was 23% for David Vitter whose share of the vote kept shrinking during the campaign.  He was AWOL in most of the debates.

"PolitiDose" endorsed Edwards in the governor's race early on because of his leadership qualities, his background, his record of service and his willingness to discuss the policies he would pursue as governor.  The people know where JBE stands on the issues facing the state and its people.  He also ran a positive campaign and was not divisive.

Edwards also demonstrated his commitment to the state and the people Saturday night when most of the results were in.  He was thankful and spoke about his visions for the state on many issues.  It was all about the state and its people moving forward.  Vitter on his after election speech was more of the conservative rhetoric concerning President Obama and the usual divisive talk.  One would think Vitter is running for some office other than governor of Louisiana.  What a stark contrast.

In the second primary representative Edwards will need a high turn out of the democratic vote, keep the votes he won and about 10% of the republican vote that was cast in the first primary.  This writer expects Edwards to continue to run a positive campaign and be ready to handle the personal attacks and divisive issues that will surely be used by Vitter.  That is the only type of campaign he and his party can run.  They have absolutely no accomplishments to run on.  

John Bel Edwards is the only candidate in this race who is a serious public official with the political understanding to put Louisiana on a new course that is so needed after eight years of republican mis-management.  

This commentary written by Joe Lorio