(Photo: Lou Gehrig Burnett)    

Crews will fill out the remainder of the term of former state Rep. Mike Johnson, who was elected to Congress.  The term runs through 2019.
    Only 5,995 voters out of 28,989 in this Bossier House District went to the polls.  Of the 28,989 registered voters, 75.8% are white, 18.9% are black, and 5.2% are other races.
    By party affiliation, 48.6% are Republicans, 26.5% are Democrats, and 25% are Other Party/No Party.
    Crews had finished first in the primary on March 25 with 41% of the vote.  Gatti was second with 37%, followed by Duke Lowrie with 16% and Patrick Harrington with 6%.  The turnout in the primary was only 18%.  All of the candidates are Republicans.
    But  Crews  seemed  to  have  picked  up  the votes  of Lowrie and Harrington while Gatti lost 1%  of his vote from the primary.
    It wasn’t from lack of money.  Through April 9, Louisiana  Ethics  Commission  reports  show  that  Gatti outspent Crews.  Gatti had total expenditures of $110,710 while Crews had spent $70,386.  The  reports did not include expenditures made between April 9 and election day.
    But, in the end, Crews had the backing of elected officials, such as Johnson and U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, state Attorney General Jeff Landry, the Bossier Republican Party, and LABI.  Those endorsements – and the money that comes with them – was too much for Gatti to overcome.
    Gatti was also haunted by a photo that surfaced of him attending a church function while in “Blackface.”  He said he was dressed as Tiger Woods and said that two black women in the photo had been cropped out.