John Leigh "Jay" Dardenne, Jr. (born February 6, 1954), has been Louisiana's Republican lieutenant governor since November 22, 2010. He won a special election to the position held in conjunction with the regular November 2 general election. At the time, Dardenne was Louisiana secretary of state. Formerly, Dardenne (pronounced DAR DEN) was a state senator from the Baton Rouge suburbs, having served from 1992 until after his election as secretary of state on September 30, 2006.

Dardenne was reelected to a full term as secretary of state in the October 20, 2007, nonpartisan blanket primary. He received 758,156 votes (63 percent) to 373,956 (31 percent) for the Democrat R. Wooley. A "No Party" candidate, Scott Lewis, received the remaining 64,704 votes (5 percent). Dardenne won fifty-eight of the state's sixty-four parishes. Dardenne outpolled gubernatorial candidate Bobby Jindal, a fellow Republican, in raw votes and won sixty-one parishes to Jindal's sixty.

On November 2, 2010, Dardenne was elected the next Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, defeating opponent Caroline Fayard, a young Democrat originally from Denham Springs, in the 2010 State of Louisiana elections.Tom Schedler, Dardenne's chief deputy in the secretary of state's office, succeeded him in performing the responsibilities of the secretary of state when Dardenne was sworn in as lieutenant governor. Dardenne polled 719,243 votes (57 percent) to Fayard's 540,633 (43 percent). Dardenne won most of the sixty-four parishes but lost Orleans, Caddo, and St. Landry.

William Harold "Billy" Nungesser (born 1959) is the President of Plaquemines Parish in suburban New Orleans, Louisiana. A Republican, Nungesser was re-elected to a second four-year term in the 2010 general election, having defeated two opponents with more than 71 percent of the vote. His second term began on January 1, 2011. He made countless media appearances in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, including almost nightly guest appearances on the Cable News Network alongside journalist Anderson Cooper. Nungesser was recognized as the Face of the Oil Spill by major media outlets such as the New Orleans Times-Picayune, New York Times, Associated Press, CNN, Reuters, and ABC News.

Plaquemines Parish consists of the final stretch of the Mississippi River before it connects with the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane Katrina first made landfall in the southern end of Plaquemines, in the town of Empire, Louisiana.

His father, William "Billy" Nungesser, was also a prominent figure in Louisiana politics, having been chief of staff during David C. Treen's term as governor from 1980 to 1984 and later as the state chairman of the Louisiana Republican Party, in which capacity he supported Patrick J. Buchanan for the party's 1992 presidential nomination.

J. Stanley "Skip" Bertman (born May 23, 1938 in Detroit), is a former college baseball coach and athletic director at LSU. He led the LSU Tigers baseball team to College World Series Championships in 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, and 2000.

Bertman spent his collegiate playing days as an outfielder and catcher at the University of Miami, in Coral Gables, Florida, from 1958-1960. While a player at UM, Bertman earned his B.A. in health and physical education. He later received his master's degree from UM in 1964.

In 11 seasons as head baseball coach at Miami Beach High School, Bertman's team won a State Championship and was State runner-up twice. Bertman was named Florida High School Coach of the Year three times. Based in part on these coaching credentials, Bertman went on to work as associate head coach at the University of Miami for eight seasons (1976–1983) under Ron Fraser. During this time, the Hurricanes won the national championship in 1982 and, after Bertman left to become head baseball coach at LSU, the Hurricanes went on to win the championship again, in 1985.