BATON ROUGE -- Secretary of State Al Ater, who took over the office when Fox McKeithen died earlier this year, announced Wednesday that he will not run for the office in the special election next fall.

Ater said that he doesn't want the difficult decisions he needs to make about when to hold the upcoming New Orleans municipal elections to be overshadowed by political factors.

He also said he has come to the conclusion that the position, which is the state office responsible for holding elections and maintaining corporate filings and other state records, should be appointed.

"This is not for political reasons and not for my political betterment. It is the right thing to do," said Ater, a Democrat from Ferriday who served eight years in the state House of Representatives.

The decision opens the field for the first statewide election that will be held after the recent hurricanes that devastated south Louisiana, setting up a kind of trial run for the 2007 season, when all of the statewide elected officials and the entire Legislature are up for re-election.

The special election has been set for Sept. 30; a runoff, if needed, will be Nov. 7.

The election could provide some important clues on the impact the diaspora of residents from the New Orleans region will have on statewide elections.

"This will establish a profile of voters: Who are the people who voted, and where are they located?" said Bernie Pinsonat, a pollster and political analyst with Southern Media and Opinion Research.

"You'll find out a lot about the New Orleans area. Who gained an advantage, and who lost."

Speculation about who would run for the secretary of state post began shortly after McKeithen died in July.

Several term-limited legislators who will not be able to seek re-election are considered possible contenders, as is McKeithen's daughter, Marjorie McKeithen Schlesinger.

Since the hurricanes, the secretary of state's office has become a higher-profile one.

Ater is the main figure who will decide whether to hold the Feb. 4 New Orleans elections that will determine the city's mayor and City Council members, as well as a number of other local positions.

While the governor has the final call on whether to go ahead, Gov. Kathleen Blanco has said she will follow Ater's recommendation.

Ater has already voiced skepticism that the city is ready to hold an election, citing the destruction of many polling places and the lack of commissioners to staff the precincts.

He will make the official announcement Friday after further consultation with his staff and local elections officials, he said.

"I take it very seriously that we hold elections when they are scheduled to be held," Ater said. "It is only after we have exhausted every possible remedy and everything we have at our disposal that we postpone them."

Before leaving office next fall, Ater pledged to offer an aggressive list of "proposals and reforms" to modernize the secretary of state office during the spring legislative session.

Ater served as first assistant secretary of state under McKeithen, a longtime friend, from 2001 until 2004.

After a brief stint at the state Department of Insurance, Ater returned to the secretary of state's office after McKeithen became paralyzed in a fall at his home Feb. 17.

He has served as the secretary of state since McKeithen's death in July.

. . . . . . .

Laura Maggi can be reached at [email protected] or (225) 342-5590.