Gubernatorial elections, 2011
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Three states,Kentucky,Louisiana, andMississippi, had scheduled gubernatorial elections in the 2011 electoral cycle. A fourth state,West Virginia, held a special election following a court order.
In Kentucky and Louisiana, incumbentsSteve Beshear (D -Kentucky) andBobby Jindal (R -Louisiana) won re-election. Mississippi'sHaley Barbour was prevented by term limits from running for re-election and hislieutenant governor,RepublicanPhil Bryant, won election as his successor. InWest Virginia, acting Governor pro temEarl Ray Tomblin won a special election to a 14-month term.
- See also:Lieutenant Governor elections, 2011
Kentucky
Kentucky elects the governor and the lieutenant governor on a shared ticket; the two offices have a single primary race.
The state's current Governor,Steve L. Beshear (D), first elected in 2007, easily won re-election in 2011. His former lieutenant governor,Daniel Mongiardo, ran for and lost the Democratic primary for the Class III U.S. Senate seat currently held byRepublican Rand Paul. Beshear's running mate for 2011 isJerry Abramson, a former Louisville mayor.
Beshear and Abramson defeated both theRepublican team ofstate Senate PresidentDavid Williams and outgoingAgriculture CommissionerRichie Farmer and an independent candidate, trial attorneyGatewood Galbraith, and his running mate,Dea Riley.
Louisiana
TheLouisiana gubernatorial election of 2011 was decided on October 22, 2011 in the primary election. IncumbentRepublicanBobby Jindal captured more than 50% of the vote in theblanket primary, winning re-election outright.
Mississippi
RepublicanPhil Bryant, the state's currentlieutenant governor, defeatedDemocrat Hattiesburg mayorJohnny DuPree.
Term limits prevented the state's currentGovernor,Haley Barbour, from running for a third term, and there was a large field of candidates jockeying for his seat. BothRepublicans andDemocrats had multiple candidates enter the primary elections, two candidates claiming to represent theReform Party sought a spot on the ballot, and one independent candidate qualified for the general election.
In early September 2011, though, all three third-party candidates were removed from the ballot.Independent candidateWilliam D. Oatis withdrew from the race citing a lack of money to support his campaign, and the Mississippi State Board of Election Commissioners removed bothReform Party hopefuls,Bobby Kearan andShawn O'Hara, from the ballot. Despite an announcement on the Reform Party National Committee's website that Kearan was their official candidate[1], the Mississippi State Board of Elections granted formal recognition to the O'Hara campaign. But O'Hara was also running forMississippi Treasurer, andMississippi Secretary of StateDelbert Hosemann removed him from the gubernatorial race, citing a Mississippi law that stipulates candidates who file for multiple offices can only run in the race for which they filed most recently.[2]
West Virginia
West Virginia was not scheduled to hold a gubernatorial election until 2012. However, electedDemocratJoe Manchin gave up the seat to join the U.S. Senate in the 2010 midterms. Senate PresidentEarl Ray Tomblin, also a Democrat, took over the office as West Virginia does not have a lieutenant governor.
Multiple lawsuits sought to force a special election in 2011 for the remainder of Manchin's term rather than allow Tomblin to remain in office as an appointee until 2012, and onJanuary 18, 2011, theWest Virginia Supreme Court ordered a 2011 election inCitizen Action v. Tomblin - No. 101494.[3]
In the May primary,Earl Ray Tomblin andBill Maloney easily won the respectiveDemocratic andRepublican nominations. The Mountain Party nominatedBob Henry Baber at the convention on the May 1st.Harry Bertram ran as an independent candidate.
Democratic incumbentEarl Ray Tomblin defeatedRepublicanBill Maloney,Mountain Party candidateBob Henry Baber,Independent candidateMarla Ingels, and American Third Position candidateHarry Bertram.
Footnotes
- ↑'"ReformParty.org, "Candidates: Mississippi," accessed September 20, 2011
- ↑Chron.com, "2 candidates out of Miss. gov race, and 2 remain," September 9, 2011
- ↑Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, "STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA EX REL. WEST VIRGINIA CITIZEN ACTION GROUP, Petitioner v. EARL RAY TOMBLIN," filed January 18, 2011
