Baldone seeks Democrat, Republican distinction from court

A former state legislator who would like to serve again is adding a novel component to his candidacy, a quest to appear as both a Republican and Democrat on ballots that will appear in October.

Damon Baldone, who represented House District 53 from 2001-12, now seeks the seat of out-going District 52 legislator Gordon Dove, R-Houma, who is running for Terrebonne Parish president.

An attorney and businessman from Houma, Baldone’s candidacy has him opposing two men he counts as friends, business owner J.J. Buquet and levee czar Jerome Zeringue.

Both Buquet and Zeringue are Republicans. Baldone, a Democrat, doesn’t want to give up his party roots but also covets concurrent ballot designation as a Republican. He is now embroiled in a court battle in order to do just that.

“It may not benefit my chances, the best thing for me would have been to switch to Republican,” Baldone said. “But both sides have good ideas and both sides have bad ideas. A lot of people switch parties but the values and morals don’t switch. JJ (Buquet) was a Democrat not long ago.”

The operative word in that sentence is “was” and Baldone is not seeking to be someone who “was” a Democrat, but still is, and also a Republican to boot.

The problem for Baldone is that Louisiana – while not barring someone from running on more than one party line – appears to have no mechanism allowing for that to happen.

He has taken Terrebonne Parish Registrar of Voters Rhonda Rogers to court, seeking to compel her to accept his voter registration as being from both parties. Candidate affiliation with a party, Rogers confirmed, is based on what party they are registered as for voting purposes.

Baldone states his rights to freedom of speech and association are violated by the refusal and he appeared Friday before State District Judge David Arceneaux to plead his case.

Assistant Attorney General Bill Bryan represented the Rogers. Other states do have provisions that allow for dual party affiliations or even more variety for one candidate. But Louisiana does not.

The process begins with a paper form on which a voter circles party preference. The information is then manually fed into a state-linked computer system.

“Ms. Rogers has no discretion as to accepting more than one party being circled,” Bryan argued.

“Electronically it would have been physically impossible,” Arceneaux mused. “But people are in charge, not computers.”

The choices available to Baldone based on that system are Republican, Democrat, “no Party” or “Independent.”

But none of those, he argued, is appropriate for him. Baldone said he wants to be part of both party systems, to help shape their policies.

While acknowledging that Baldone’s situation is a “novel issue,” Arceneaux turned to the federal courts for guidance, and cited a 1983 decision by the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The appellate panel rejected an argument by the Libertarian Party of Louisiana that forcing the group’s candidate to be identified as being affiliated with an “unrecognized party” on a ballot violated First Amendment and due process rights.

“The state’s interest is in avoiding confusion,” Arceneaux said, ruling that such a concern by the state is a valid reason for not granting Baldone’s request.

Defeated in district court, Baldone is now bringing his argument to the Louisiana Supreme Court.

He was preparing a brief on Monday.

“I don’t know how soon they will set it for a hearing,” Baldone said. “I am hoping by next week.”