Foster Reelected as Louisiana Governor

NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster won a second term Saturday, becoming the second member of his family to usher in a new century as governor.

The state’s unique open primary system pits all candidates against one another in one primary race, regardless of party. If no one wins more than half the votes, the top two candidates go into a runoff.

Foster, a Republican, received well over half, easily besting his 11 challengers.

His top-running challenger, Rep. William Jefferson, the state’s first black congressman since Reconstruction, had about one-third of the votes.

Jefferson spent much of the campaign blaming Foster for Louisiana’s public education woes and trying to tie the governor to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

He questioned Foster’s 1995 purchase of Duke’s list of supporters, over which Foster was ordered to pay a $20,000 ethics violation fine for failing to disclose on a campaign report. Foster called the flap over the list a “nonissue.”

He countered the attacks by reminding voters that he was the first governor in at least 30 years to push three straight teacher raises through the Legislature.

Foster is a wealthy planter whose grandfather served as governor at the last turn of the century.