1999 United States gubernatorial election
The 1999 United States gubernatorial election took place between October 23 and November 4, 1999. The states of Kentucky , Louisiana and Mississippi were elected . The Democratic Party candidates won in Kentucky and Mississippi, and the Republican incumbent in Louisiana .
In contrast to previous years, the election of the governor of Louisiana was very unspectacular this time. That was because the Jungle Primary , the common area code of all parties, was not as well-known as in the past. With Republican Mike Foster, elected four years earlier, and Democratic Congressman William J. Jefferson , there were only two serious candidates; Republican State Senator Tom Greene had little chance . This ended up in the defeated field with 2.7 percent of the votes, as did eight other candidates - and William Jefferson's application was also unsuccessful. With only 29.5 percent of the vote, he clearly missed the possible runoff election; Governor Foster was clearly confirmed with a share of 60.7 percent.
After eight years in office of Republican Kirk Fordice , the Democrats were able to regain governorship in their former stronghold of Mississippi. Ronnie Musgrove , lieutenant governor under Fordice, received 49.6 percent of the vote, relegating Republican Congressman Michael Parker (48.5) just to second place. Jerry Ladner from the Reform Party came in third with 1.1 percent.
There was a historic result in Kentucky, where incumbent Paul E. Patton was the first governor since James Garrard (1796-1804) to serve two consecutive terms. This was made possible by a constitutional change made under his predecessor Brereton Jones . After he had only just won four years earlier, the Democrat Patton now prevailed safely with 60.7 percent of the vote; it won a majority in 114 of the state's 120 counties . His Republican opponent Peppy Martin had by reckless statements about marriage between Kentucky -Senator Mitch McConnell and from Taiwan originating Elaine Chao lost the support of the influential politician. In the election she did not get more than 22.2 percent; Gatewood Galbraith, candidate of the Reform Party, did surprisingly well with 15.3 percent of the vote.
