Jerry Fowler - Defeat in The 1999 Jungle Primary

Defeat in The 1999 Jungle Primary

In 1999, however, Fowler ran into insurmountable difficulties, as it turned out in the race, in which ten challengers stepped forward: five Republicans, three fellow Democrats, and two "no party" candidates. Fowler finished a strong third with 247,961 (21%) in the multiple-candidate field. He missed a general election berth, however, by 9,222 votes. In fact, two Republicans secured the slots in the second balloting: Suzanne Haik Terrell of New Orleans (257,182 or 22%) and outgoing state Representative Louis E. "Woody" Jenkins of Baton Rouge (305,919 or 26%). Terrell, though the second-place finisher in the primary, went on to defeat Jenkins, who had earlier lost three high-profile races for the U.S. Senate. Jenkins' loss effectively ended his political career. Presumably had Fowler obtained the second slot, instead of Terrell, he would have lost to Jenkins, considering the allegations which surfaced about abuses of his office. Terrell emerged in 2002 as a U.S. Senate candidate and was defeated by the Democratic incumbent Mary Landrieu.

Terrell, like John Henry Baker, a quarter of a century earlier, promised to work to abolish the "useless" office. And she managed to do so in her four-year term, for Terrell was the only woman elections commissioner, the only Republican elections commissioner, and the last of the three elected commissioners in Louisiana history. A political commentator, Alan Ehrenhalt, hailed Terrell's steps to abolish the office, which he dubbed the "most ridiculous elective office in the history of state government." The commissioner of elections did not even keep the tabulation of election returns: that function remains within the duties of the secretary of state, which operates a website with returns dating from 1987 and partial tabulations between 1983 and 1986.