The first day of filing concluded, and nearly all incumbents who were supposed to qualify did so, although there were a fair number of challengers who filed today as well.

Statewide Elected Officials

All incumbent statewide elected officials (who are Republicans) qualified today. No Democrats filed for a statewide race today, although there are still two more days of qualifying. Governor Bobby Jindal picked up three No Party challengers. The Lt Governor and Secretary of State races saw two Republicans file today. Incumbent Lt Governor Jay Dardenne will be challenged by Billy Nungesser, while Secretary of State Tom Schedler, as expected, received opposition from House Speaker Jim Tucker.

Currently, the Republican Attorney General, Treasurer, Commissioner of Agriculture, and Commissioner of Insurance are unopposed.

BESE

The statewide board of education saw 6 out of 8 elected incumbents qualify for re-election today (Linda Johnson (D-Plaquemine) is not running again, and Louella Givens (D-New Orleans) has not yet filed). The one surprise today was that in the Baton Rouge area, Republican incumbent Chas Roemer picked up both Democratic and Republican opposition.

Legislature

Out of 144 legislators, we know of 110 incumbents (31 in the Senate and 79 in the House) who are running for re-election. Nearly all incumbents filed today. Here’s what happened in each chamber:

House

Of the 79 incumbents who were supposed to file for re-election, 75 filed today (the holdouts were Roy Burrell (D-Shreveport), Chris Hazel (R-Ball), Joel Robideaux (R-Lafayette), and Scott Simon (R-Abita Springs)). Republicans so far are contesting 65 of the 105 House seats (for comparison’s sake, they contested 67 seats in 2007), although once you count Chris Hazel, Joel Robideaux, Scott Simon, and the open District 53 seat (two Republicans have announced), they are contesting a record 68 seats.

Reapportionment forced two Republican House incumbents (Nick Lorusso and John Labruzzo) from the New Orleans area to run against each other, and both filed for re-election today.

Senate

Of the 31 incumbents who were supposed to file for re-election, 28 filed today (the holdouts were Norby Chabert (R-Houma), Eric Lafleur (D-Ville Platte), and Lydia Jackson (D-Shreveport)). Republicans so far are contesting 25 of the 39 Senate seats (for comparison’s sake, they contested 23 seats in 2007), although once you count Norby Chabert, they are so far contesting a record 26 seats.

Reapportionment forced two Democratic Senate incumbents (Cynthia Willard-Lewis and J.P. Morrell) from New Orleans to run against each other, and both filed for re-election today.

Surprises

Nothing unexpected happened today, although a clerical error (which was fixed fairly quickly) showed that Jared Brossett (D-New Orleans) had filed to run for re-election both in his own seat and that of freshman Democrat Walt Leger (D-New Orleans).