Prep Roundup Week 2
September 16, 2015
Terrebonne sheriff and deputies sued over shooting of teen
September 22, 2015
A Houma attorney who had considered running for an open Louisiana House seat has chosen not to pursue the race.
But Damon Baldone, who represented House District 53 from 2001-12, has not given up on his court fight to be allowed registration as both a Democrat and a Republican on Louisiana voter rolls.
Currently registered as a Democrat, Baldone had tried to register as a member of both that party and the GOP, in anticipation of his planned run.
Rebuffed last week by the Louisiana Supreme Court after filing an emergency petition for his case to be heard, Baldone filed an appeal from a decision issued last month by Terrebonne District Judge David Arceneuax to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal, the intermediate appellate court.
“As a voter and as a candidate I maintain that you have the right to register as you choose,” Baldone said in a Sunday interview. “You have the right to freedom of association. When people run polls or target campaign mail they get the voter registration information from the Secretary of State that says these people are Democrats or these people are Republicans. It works one way, but I want people to be able to work with both parties if they choose. I am out there affiliating with both the Democratic and the Republican party. I want both of them to contact me and to take a role in discussing the issues.”
Under Louisiana law affiliation with a political party is what determines on whose line a candidate will run. People registered to vote as Democrats may run as Democrats. Registered Republicans run as Republicans.
Baldone was denied his request to register this year as both a Democrat and a Republican by Terrebonne Registrar of Voters Rhonda Rogers, who said the form and the computer input she must use, supplied by the Louisiana Secretary of State, does not allow it.
Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, whose office represents Rogers, has opposed Baldone’s case.
After a hearing during which Arceneaux ruled against him from the bench, Baldone prepared his proposed writ for the Louisiana Supreme Court to consider, bypassing th 1st Circuit.
But the Supreme Court refused.
The matter is now calendered for a 1st Circuit hearing, scheduled for Sept. 21.
Other states allow candidates for various offices to run on more than one party line.
Baldone’s request is unique in that it involves actual registration as a voter.
In most states party registration determines whether a voter can cast a ballot in a primary election.
That is less of an issue in Louisiana, where an open primary system is used, with party affiliation a non-issue.
The scheme does not hold true in presidential elections, however, where only Republicans may vote in that party’s primary, and only Democrats in the Democratic primary.
