Jay Dardenne - Lieutenant Governor

Lieutenant Governor

On February 12, 2010, Dardenne announced his intention to run for Lieutenant Governor in the special election held on October 2. Leading a multi-candidate field with 28 percent of the ballots cast, Dardenne advanced to face Democrat Caroline Fayard, a previously political unknown who enjoyed the backing of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and trailed with 24 percent of the vote. The two were to meet in the November 2 general election. Three other Republican candidates were eliminated in the primary—Country singer Sammy Kershaw (19 percent), St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis (8 percent), and Louisiana Republican Party state chairman Roger F. Villere, Jr. (4 percent)—along with Democrat Butch Gautreaux (4 percent), then a Louisiana state senator. Kershaw, Davis, and Villere endorsed fellow Republican Dardenne, as Gautreaux supported fellow Democrat Fayard.

Republican chairman Villere's endorsement of Dardenne, which came after months of criticizing the frontrunner, was met with incredulous statements like those of political scientist Pearson Cross of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette:

Maybe he thinks that you can at the end of the day say, "Well, we just need to all come together." It just seems odd.

Dardenne and Fayard appeared on the October 15 episode of the news magazine Louisiana: The State We're In televised by Louisiana Public Broadcasting and in an October 22 forum sponsored by the Baton Rouge League of Women Voters.

On October 4, Southeastern Louisiana University political scientist Michael Kurt Corbello summarized the runoff election between veteran officeholder Dardenne and political newcomer Fayard as "a very interesting, competitive race."

Political columnist John Maginnis joked that

Dardenne, rather, needs to raise the stakes of this election, emphasizing experience and readiness. Otherwise, should this become a beauty contest, he's got problems.

The runoff campaign soon turned controversial as Dardenne described Fayard as a supporter of U.S. President Barack H. Obama, a proponent of gay marriage, and an opponent of the death penalty, while Fayard, who was 32 years of age and had never held political office, countered that Dardenne represented "the same old crowd" of Louisiana politics. For further information about the 2010 election, please see Louisiana state elections, 2010#Lieutenant Governor.