Qualifying is closed for Day One

Here's the Advocate's run down.  So far no sign of David Duke. But the purpose of his name having been floated at all was to make Steve Scalise talk about him so that's mission accomplished already. Bonus points for making him talk about Duke and Trump at the same time.

One of those leaders, U.S. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, the Jefferson Republican who ranks as third in the House leadership, said the reason is that voters are frustrated with the direction of the country. He said Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, if elected, would overturn regulations that has hampered economic growth.

Scalise also called David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader who is flirting with a challenge to him, a racist with anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic views.

Also of note in this article, Kip Holden and Cedric Richmond don't like one another. 

Holden, who is term limited and must leave office in January, says he has been approached by a number of constituents who felt that Richmond was not doing his job, like attracting business to the district.

“If there wasn’t a problem, I wouldn’t be running,” Holden said, “The people of Baton Rouge have mostly been in the lost and found section” for Richmond.

Richmond suggested that Holden should resign as mayor of Baton Rouge if he planned to run for congress. The tensions that have grown from the police shooting of Alton Sterling followed by protests and the murder of three law enforcement officers requires the focus of a full-time mayor.

Richmond, whose district includes north Baton Rouge, said Gov. John Bel Edwards showed real leadership during the crisis this month “because the mayor was locked in his house.”

At the same time, though, we learned that both Richmond and Holden fully support abusive police tactics in Baton Rouge so what difference does any of this even make?

.@RepRichmond says police response to #AltonSterling protests was "for the most part, very reasonable". #LA02

— Julia O'Donoghue (@JSODonoghue) July 20, 2016

Other things happened. Joe Cao is running for some reason. Derrick Edwards qualified for Senate instantly negating his own declaration, "I am not a politician and I will never be a politician."

Also this libertarian flavored investment banker VP of the New Orleans Business Alliance is running.  

My name is Abhay Patel, and I’m a candidate for the United States Senate. I’m a proud Louisianan, and I have the ability, experience and vision to serve the people of this great state. If elected, I vow to stand for limited government, individual liberty and local empowerment.

Oh dear. Here is Patel at the Trump Convention this week talking about trickle-down economics and "job creators and such.  And here he is telling the Advocate about himself.

Abhay Patel, a New Orleans businessman, also qualified to run for the Senate as a Republican. “I’m the only candidate who never run for office before,” he said.

But this is already a lie because of the day's one true bombshell announcement. 

Kaitlin Marone, of New Orleans, qualified to run without party affiliation, saying nobody is paying attention to the race right now and she didn't want the Republican Party to appoint whoever they want to the post.

Marone is a local comedian who we're pretty sure has never run for office before. [UPDATE: Confirmed!]  Here is her first campaign ad (that we're aware of, anyway.)