The second day of filing has concluded (the deadline to file is 5PM tomorrow). Most of the remaining “holdouts” among the incumbents did end up filing today, and some more challengers filed today as well. Overall, however, the pace was considerably slower than yesterday (40 candidates for statewide legislative office filed today, as opposed to the 246 who filed yesterday).

Statewide Elected Officials

Two Democrats filed for Governor today, Tara Hollis and Cary Deaton (who ran against Charlie Melancon last year in the Democratic primary). Other than that, no Democrats entered any other statewide races, and the Republican incumbents for Attorney General, Treasurer, Commissioner of Agriculture, and Commissioner of Insurance remain unopposed.

The only suspense right now is that there are three potential statewide candidates who will have to make their plans known tomorrow: John Georges, Scott Angelle, and Caroline Fayard.

BESE

The statewide board of education saw the 7th (out of 8 elected incumbents) incumbent qualify: Louella Givens (D-New Orleans). Other than that, it was relatively quiet: Incumbent Dale Bayard, as expected, picked up a challenge from Republican Holly Boffy, while Democrat Carolyn Hill qualified for the vacant 8^th District. So far, four incumbents (Republicans Jim Garvey and Walter Lee, and Democrats Glenny Buquet and Keith Guice) remain unopposed.

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. 5 more incumbents filed today, which means that 108 of 110 incumbents running for re-election have qualified so far.

House

Of the 79 incumbents who were supposed to file for re-election, four more filed today (Roy Burrell (D-Shreveport), Chris Hazel (R-Ball), Joel Robideaux (R-Lafayette), and Scott Simon (R-Abita Springs)), which means there are no more incumbents to file for re-election. Republicans so far are contesting 68 of the 105 House seats (for comparison’s sake, they contested 67 seats in 2007), which is a record.

Incidentally, with one day left, 52 House incumbents do not have an opponent.

Senate

Of the 31 incumbents who were supposed to file for re-election, one more (Eric Lafleur (D-Ville Platte) filed today, which leaves Norby Chabert (R-Houma) and Lydia Jackson (D-Shreveport)) as the remaining holdouts. Republicans so far are contesting 27 out of 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 28 seats.

With one day left to qualify, 12 senators do not have an opponent.