What year did a House incumbent last lose for re-election in Louisiana?

a) 1980

b) 1992

c) 1996

d) 2004

Answer: b) Louisiana is a great place to run for the U.S. House if job security is a goal. The last two incumbent defeats came in the same year of 1992 — and they both were results of incumbents being pitted against each other under a redistricting plan that drastically adjusted lines after the reapportionment based on the 1990 census cost the state a seat.

In one race, a pair of three-term Republicans were forced to face off, with Richard H. Baker defeating Clyde C. Holloway. Baker continued to serve until this February, when he resigned his seat to head the trade association for hedge funds. Democrat Don Cazayoux scored a big victory for his party when he won the May 3 special election for Baker’s vacated 6th District seat.

In the other 1992 incumbent-vs.-incumbent race, Republican Rep. Jim McCrery — who first won his seat in a 1988 special election — defeated eight-term Democrat Jerry Huckaby. McCrery, also a longtime congressional fixture, rose to his current role as ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee but is not seeking re-election this year. Democrats are making a run at his 4th District seat in a contest that is expected to be highly competitive.

To find a race in which a Louisiana House incumbent lost straight out to a challenger, you have to go all the way back to the “Buddy match” of 1980, when then-Democrat Charles “Buddy” Roemer ousted Democratic incumbent Charles “Buddy” Leach. Roemer was elected governor as a Democrat in 1987, but switched his affiliation to Republican as he prepared to run for re-election in 1991. He finished third in that open primary, though, in an embarrassing result for the GOP: David E. Duke, a former national leader of the Ku Klux Klan, ran as a Republican and outpolled Roemer for the second runoff spot against Democrat Edwin W. Edwards. Edwards went on to easily win the general election over Duke, who was disowned by the national and state Republican Party organizations.

There are House incumbents running this year in Louisiana who are vulnerable to challenges. One is nine-term Democratic Rep. William J. Jefferson of the New Orleans-based 2nd District, who has been indicted on federal corruption charges and is awaiting trial; a large field of challengers joined Jefferson in meeting Friday’s candidate filing deadline for the Democratic primary Sept. 6. Republicans will be trying to take back the 6th District seat they lost to Cazayoux. In addition, Democrats say they will stage a serious challenge against two-term Republican Rep. Charles Boustany Jr. in the southwestern 7th District.