In one week, candidates for this fall's Louisiana elections start qualifying.
The race is still poised for a Jeff Landry vs. Shawn Wilson runoff, but Louisiana pollster John Couvillon of JMC Analytics says Landry still needs to contend with his fellow Republicans seeking the governor's office, especially John Schroder and Steve Waguespack, who are well funded.
"It will be interesting to see as the two of them, and Rep. Richard Nelson and State Sen. Sharon Hewitt start to spend their money, what happens to the poll numbers," said Landry -- although he does not expect quite the brawl the last time the governor's office was up for grabs.
"It's certainly the temptation, but I think you also have the memories of 2015 where the Republicans were engaged in all-out war with each other as kind of a cautionary note about what the boundaries will be about those types of attacks."
Even though he's the front runner, Landry is still closing ranks, landing the approval of Sen. Bill Cassidy:
"The fact that Landry has sought and received his endorsement signifies to me that he is trying to do a closing of the ranks even with qualifying still a week to go," said Couvillon.
Landry also has millions more dollars in campaign money than his closest rivals, but those rivals have yet to really unleash any potential attack ads with election day still more than two months away.
