Donelon narrowly wins La. commissioner race

Louisiana Insurance Commis-sioner Jim Donelon held onto his job in a special statewide election on Sept. 30, narrowly escaping a runoff to win the election in a campaign that bogged down in nasty attacks and allegations of wrongdoing.

The race wasn’t determined until the final votes were tallied early Sunday morning, but Donelon managed to hold onto his 50.1 percent majority and avoid a November runoff with state Sen. James David Cain, who ended with 39 percent of the vote, according to unofficial election returns from the secretary of state’s office.

Cain won’t ask for a recount or challenge the election results if Donelon is deemed the winner of the primary after the vote count is certified, said Chris Ingram, Cain’s campaign manager.

“James David Cain has never believed that the way to win an election is through lawsuits,” he said.

Analysts had predicted the mudslinging between Cain and Donelon in the race could boost votes for Libertarian insurance broker S.B.A Zaitoon, and Zaitoon did peel many votes away from the two major candidates, garnering 11 percent.

The election’s turnout was the lowest for a statewide ballot in at least a decade, according to the secretary of state’s office. Only about 20 percent of Louisiana’s 2.9 million voters showed up at the polls for elections. The lowest turnout for a statewide election previously was in the congressional runoff election in December 2004, when 23.5 percent of the voters cast ballots, said Jennifer Marusak, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state’s office.

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