Elections in Louisiana—with the exception of U.S. Presidential and Congressional elections—follow a variation of the open primary system.

The election campaign began in earnest after voters rejected a charter amendment which would have allowed Dutch Morial to run for a third term.

Early in the primary campaign, polls showed Barthelemy with a 21 point lead over Jefferson, but Jefferson's endorsement by Morial and the support of Morial's political organization LIFE enabled him to take much of Barthelemy's support in the black community.

Though LeBlanc didn't make an endorsement, most white voters switched to Barthelemy in the runoff.

Unlike his two immediate predecessors Moon Landrieu and Dutch Morial - who were first elected by a combination of a minority of white voters and an overwhelming proportion of the black electorate - Barthelemy won election against a candidate most blacks preferred by appealing to the vast majority of white voters, a strategy which was successfully duplicated by Ray Nagin against Richard Pennington in the 2002 election.