Louisiana voters head to polls for Saturday runoff elections

Louisiana voters will head to the polls Saturday to decide on the lone outstanding U.S. Senate contest of 2014 and two outstanding U.S. House races.

In the Senate race between Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu and GOP Rep. Bill Cassidy, Ms. Landrieu has been struggling to get help from national Democratic groups after the Nov. 4 “jungle primary” in which neither candidate managed to eclipse 50 percent of the vote.

That sent the race into a Dec. 6 runoff, where polling shows Mr. Cassidy up double digits in a race that will likely give Republicans a 54th seat to pad their majority in the U.S. Senate. The Republican National Committee circulated a collection of news clips Friday morning detailing how national Democratic groups like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) have largely left Ms. Landrieu to fight on her own in the runoff.

And the Center for Public Integrity reported this week that groups backing Ms. Landrieu have aired less than 100 television ads since Nov. 5, while a handful of conservative groups have aired nearly 6,000, most of which are devoted to attacking Ms. Landrieu.

Ms. Landrieu has survived runoffs before, both in 1996 when she was first elected and in 2002 when she won a second term. But it appears as if the national political environment of 2014 could be too much to overcome.

Louisiana voters will also get to decide on the final two House races of the cycle, apart from a congressional race in Arizona between Democratic Rep. Ron Barber and Republican Martha McSally that’s headed to a recount with Ms. McSally clinging to a narrow lead.

Former Gov. Edwin Edwards, a Democrat who spent nearly a decade in prison on racketeering charges, is facing Republican Garrett Graves in the race to fill the vacancy being left by Mr. Cassidy in the state’s 6th congressional district.

And in the 5th congressional district, Republican Ralph Abraham and Democrat Jamie Mayo are running to replace GOP Rep. Vance McAllister, who failed to advance past the Nov. 4 contest into the runoff. Mr. McAllister had been under fire after being caught on camera last year kissing a staffer.