Shreveport: Gorman/Fleming In GOP Clash, Carmouche Forced Into Runoff
by John Andrew Prime - Shreveport Times (excerpt)

Voters in Saturday's party primary elections winnowed the field of candidates to fill the shoes of retiring 4th Congressional District incumbent Jim McCrery, whose decision to retire put a relatively safe Republican seat up for grabs.

Still, pundits' expectations there would be a clear Democratic winner were scrambled when the candidate with the party's nod, Caddo Parish District Attorney Paul Carmouche, emerged with a plurality of the vote, but not the 50 percent-plus-one vote needed to win.

Instead, he emerged with just less than 48 percent of the votes cast in the 4th Congressional District's 13 parishes. Vernon Parish neophyte political Col. Willie Banks got just more than 23 percent of the vote and a place in a Nov. 4 runoff.

Republicans delivered a runoff as expected though, with no candidate breaking through the 40 percent barriers. As results stood late Saturday, with all but Bossier Parish's precincts in, Webster Parish physician John Fleming and Shreveport businessman Chris Gorman seemed set to combat again Nov. 4. Fleming had 36.2 percent of the vote to Chris Gorman's 36.1 percent. Jeff Thompson was third with 30.7 percent but was waiting for results from Bossier Parish, his stronghold, to roll in.