Louisianans having fun in joyless election year

In what's turned out to be a largely joyless election year, one state has upheld its reputation as a rollicking and colorful battleground, even if that's not always intentional.
Want to see a three-term senator squirt beer into a football fan's mouth as the fan does a "keg stand" a handstand on a keg of beer? Come to Louisiana.
How about a crusty character trying to return to Congress after a decades-long absence? Actually, Louisiana has two such candidates, but only one spent eight years in prison.
Elsewhere in the US, campaigning has been marked by torrents of negative ads, numbingly familiar attacks on President Barack Obama's health care law and millions of dispirited voters or perhaps nonvoters.

To be sure, there is serious campaigning and high stakes in Louisiana.
Republicans' efforts to oust Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu is crucial to their goal of netting six seats to control the Senate and thwart Obama's agenda for his remaining two years in office.

Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal, whose parents were immigrants from India, isn't on the ballot, but he's positioning himself for a possible presidential run in 2016.
Still, Louisiana is the only state where the "Duck Dynasty" reality TV stars abandoned the "kissing congressman" and made ads for a relative that would be Zach Dasher of Ouachita Parish who got into the 5th Congressional District race.

Candor is often missing at political events, but it flowed at a recent Chamber of Commerce forum in Pineville.
Eight men running for the 5th congressional seat filled the stage.
The Green Party's Eliot Barron explained his tardiness, saying, "I don't know my way around Pineville."
Chamber members grimaced, but they seemed even more perplexed when he said he wants to "reintroduce big game into national parks."
Clyde Holloway asked voters to return him to the seat he held from 1987 to 1993. He has stayed busy since then, winning election to the state's Public Service Commission but losing bids for governor, lieutenant governor and Congress.