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If you were to map the voting patterns of East Baton Rouge Parish on a sheet of paper along ideological lines, your pen would zig as well as zag. You would discover a parish that supports a Republican congressman, but also backs a Democratic mayor. You would find voters—on the same ballot—placing a staunch conservative in the governor’s office and an old-line Dem in the sheriff’s office. It’s a trend of staggering contrast.

Still, most folks looking in from the outside are quick to peg EBR as a red parish, with its burgeoning strip malls and church-going communities. And in many ways they’re correct; Baton Rouge is arguably Republican turf. The parish’s legislative delegation is run by Republicans (9-7), as is the school board (8-4) and Metro Council (8-4).

Not a bad footing for the GOP, but it begins to fizzle shortly after. The parish’s voter rolls have yet to catch up, although there are signs of momentum. As of December of last year, there were 126,846 registered Democrats in the parish and 71,145 Republicans. That’s about 2,200 more Republican voters compared to four years ago and roughly 1,300 fewer Dems.

Registration numbers, however, offer only a one-dimensional view of the landscape. In actual elections, Democrats have been able to capture major offices. Mayor Kip Holden is the classic example—no other local politician has mastered the art of picking up crossover voters better. Most recently, the election of Sheriff Sid Gautreaux, after more than two decades of Republican rule under Elmer Litchfield, offers another tear in the fabric. Voter turnout from the sheriff’s race was 31%, with Democrats making up more than half of the turnout.

Even more telling could be the upcoming contest for district attorney, which has quickly transformed from a GOP love-fest to an open free-for-all. EBR District Attorney Doug Moreau was grooming fellow Republican and heir apparent John Sinquefield, who abandoned the No. 2 job in the DA’s office last month to become the top assistant to Attorney General Buddy Caldwell. Moreau had intended to leave office early, but is now hinting about re-election plans.

The Democrats, for now, are lurking in the shadows. Local attorney Hillar Moore III says he is interested in the race, and former state Sen. Cleo Fields has made sure to insert his name in recent media coverage. Republican attorney Dan Claitor is likewise making moves. This matchup could go in any direction at any moment, which is a formula supported more by personality than political label.

Rannah Gray, a Democratic consultant who has worked for both Holden and Gautreaux, says EBR voters are almost always willing to crossover regardless of their party affiliations. The reasons for doing so, though, vary by campaign. For instance, some analysts were surprised to see Republican voting blocs in the areas of Baker, Central and Zachary going to Gautreaux, but they shouldn’t have. Gautreaux has deep family roots in that part of the parish electorate.

This small-town factor means votes are always up for grabs in local races. “Neither party can necessarily count on a certain base to vote a certain way in Baton Rouge,” Gray says. “We are becoming less-partisan on the parish level, not more. I think what has happened is Kip has shown that a Democrat can have overwhelming Republican support.”

Another reason that neither party truly dominates the parish is possibly because of a lack of effort. Edward Clark Gaudin says he can’t recall a “clean sweep” campaign ever being mounted to lock down EBR—and he’s a good one to ask.

Gaudin was the first Republican state representative elected from Baton Rouge in the 20th century. He has likewise served as a delegate to several GOP national conventions. Aside from no organized campaigns, Gaudin also says Republicans are less likely to push for Democratic votes in races for mayor or sheriff because the electorates are closely linked and fewer Democrats are willing to become crossover voters.

But more than anything else, he added, Democrats are taking major parish offices because they are in better standing to secure the “Holy Trinity of Baton Rouge politics,” although Litchfield and Moreau have shown Republicans can do it as well. “If you can’t get the black vote, the school vote and the labor vote, you’re going to have a hard time getting elected in Baton Rouge,” Gaudin says. “And it’s hard to do it piecemeal because they usually all come together as a package.”

Even further up the ballot in EBR, the lines remain ill-defined. During last year’s primary, Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, outpaced his nearest opponent in the parish by a margin of three-to-one. But on the same ballot, Democrat Mitch Landrieu slid to an easy re-election with a similar margin of local victory—and that was with GOP state Rep. Gary Beard of Baton Rouge as an opponent, alongside country music superstar Sammy Kershaw. The parish also supported a Democrat, Caldwell, for attorney general by a two-to-one margin in the November runoff.

By any interpretation out there, East Baton Rouge is a parish that can easily swing any which way. Practically anyone can pick up local votes. Just review 1991’s so-called “Race from Hell,” where EBR handed 50,000 votes to ex-Klansman David Duke, but overwhelmingly chose former Gov. Edwin Edwards by the twice the figure. National ticket outcomes are a sundry bunch as well. The parish backed President Bush over Democratic challenger U.S. Sen. John Kerry in 2004, but two years earlier, it also supported U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat who was repeatedly labeled as liberal by then-opponent Suzanne Haik Terrell.

Joe Delpit, a Baton Rouge political consultant who formerly served as speaker pro tem during the Edwards administration, says this mixed-bag approach to electing politicians is here to stay for some time. In recent years, he says politicians have been switching parties as a way to figure out the trend. But in nearly all of these cases, the switch backfired because voters viewed it as a political move, which, of course, is different from an ideological stance.

As for a long-term assessment, he predicts that Republican registration will continue to rise in coming years, but the number of black voters and Democrats less likely to switch will be on the increase, too.

It’s another set of zigs and zags, to be certain, which means Baton Rouge will remain a strong shade of purple for the foreseeable future. “Democrats will be able to maintain dominance over registration, but they’ll have to fight to stay in office,” Delpit says. “I still think in the end, though, the electorate will be looking at people over party.”